The surviving Tsarnaev brother responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 has been found guilty on all 30 counts. Knowing that their unsympathetic client had no chance of being acquitted, the defence lawyers presented a minimalistic case, only calling four witnesses as opposed to the prosecution’s 92. Their case rested on the argument that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was influenced by the radical Islamist view of his older brother Tamerlan. The second phase of the trial begins on April 21, to determine whether Dzhokhar will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984 and there has not been an execution in the state since 1947. Yet, it is possible for Tsarnaev to be sentenced to death because he is facing federal charges. A poll of Boston residents by WBUR found that 49 percent of the 504 people polled believed that Tsarnaev should be sentenced to life imprisonment and 38 percent believe he should be executed. The 227 people polled from Boston proper had an even sharper tilt, with 62 percent favouring life in prison and only 27 percent favouring execution. Although Tsarnaev’s involvement in the bombing had been proved by forensic evidence, the defence must push for life imprisonment over a federal execution as the Bostonian media, American liberals and Democrats, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have been arguing. The prosecution’s defence relied on the anti-immigrant sentiment in the US. The prosecution raised arguments that the Tsarnaev family has been on and off social security, public housing and food stamps and that the brothers had attacked the very land that sheltered and fed them after they fled Chechnya. This argument is insensitive to immigrants who become torn between clashing civilisations when they move to the US to pursue better lives and this sparks off resentment against entire communities for the actions of some individuals. Instead of bringing an end to radicalisation, it makes immigrants, especially Muslims, more susceptible to the agendas of extremist groups by exacerbating their status as social pariahs. As Vice President Biden said at the anti-terror summit in February, it is “imperative to engage with immigrants who may be radicalised because of marginalisation.” Tsarnaev should be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for his abominable crime, and the rest of the American Muslim community should not be made to suffer for it. *