AKIPRESS.COM - Jurors in the Boston Marathon bombing trial will hear closing arguments on Monday before beginning to decide whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be executed for his role in the 2013 terrorist attack.

After a month of graphic and emotional testimony in a Boston courtroom, federal prosecutors will urge the jury to convict Tsarnaev of terror offences which carry the death penalty.

The 21-year-old’s lawyers will repeat an argument they have made throughout the trial: that Tsarnaev was a pawn of his older brother Tamerlan, who died in a shoot-out with police days after the attack.

Tsarnaev’s defence team has already admitted he was involved in the attack and there is little doubt that the Boston jury will find him guilty. 

If they do convict, the trial will move to a second phase where the ten women and eight men of the jury will be asked to decide whether Tsarnaev should be put to death by lethal injection.

The second phase will involve more testimony from witnesses called by both sides, reports The Telegraph.