[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 21


USA:

Small band of death penalty opponents rally to spare Tsarnaev's life



Through snow, rain and occasional hecklers, Joe Kebartas stood outside the John 
Joseph Moakley Courthouse and protested against the death penalty.

Often he stood outside the federal court alone.

Today, before the opening arguments in the death penalty phase of Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev's terrorism trial, 12 other protestors stood with Kebartas with a 
variety of signs urging jurors to spare the Boston Marathon bomber's life.

"It's been great. We've had a big turnout today and we've galvanized in force 
agains the death penalty," said Kebartas, a retired veteran who lives in South 
Boston. "It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope we influenced the 
jury to spare his life. If so, we will be victorious."

Kebartas said passersby would occasionally walk by and yell "Fry him!" 
referring to Tsarnaev, who on April 8 was found guilty on all 30 counts he 
faced. Sometimes people would tell him to put up the money to keep Tsarnaev 
alive - for the rest of his life - in federal prison.

"Other than that, I've had a lot of thumbs up," he said. "There has been more 
positive than negative reactions to my signs against the death penalty. It's 
Massachusetts - there's more people against it than for it."

Kebartas outlasted the Tsarnaev supporters, who had conjured up conspiracy 
theories about the 2013 twin bombings. He said they were only there for a few 
days, and for the most part they didn't interact with him or other protestors 
who joined him.

Tsarnaev's defense team, which will spend the next few weeks trying to save 
their client's life, would walk by and "give me a smile," Kebartas said.

"It was encouraging for me," he said. "It was a positive experience for me, and 
I'm glad I did it. If I wasn't out here, there would be no one."

Cornelia Sullivan, of Boston, and Amy Hendrickson, of Brookline, who started 
leafletting alongside Kebartas last week, said the experience has been 
important and hope jurors are paying attention.

"We're trying to persuade people not to kill the guy. I don't know if we will 
be able to, but we feel it is our moral duty to do this," said Hendrickson. 
"This just extends the chain of violence. It dehumanizes people."

(source: Boston Herald)