On April 15, 2013, the city of Boston was forever changed. Two pressure cooker bombs went off during the famous Boston Marathon, injuring hundreds of onlookers and tragically killing eight.  Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are alleged to have planted the bombs and it resulted in a four-day man hunt for said perpetrators.

The hunt for the bombers included a kidnapping of a man, a confrontation between police and the brothers, Tamerlan being run over by Dzhokhar and the lock down of an entire town. Tamerlan, as a result of police bullet wounds and the impact of the car, died but Dzhokhar was found wounded and bleeding hiding inside of a boat.

Two years on, the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now coming to an end it appears that most families impacted by this tragedy have begun to put their lives back together.  Tsarnaev has the possibility of being found guilty of thirty charges, seventeen of which he could be executed for or face life in prison without parole. Not all of the victims’ families are in support of the death penalty however. One family of an eight year old killed by the bombs do not want the death penalty verdict as this would result in multiple appeal trials which they do not want endure.

If he is not to face the death penalty, it is likely that Dzhokhar will be sentenced to life in prison here in Colorado, in one of the largest maximum security prisons in the U.S. Other infamous criminals who have been incarcerated there are Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber” and the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy Mcveigh.

Defense lawyers for Tsarnaev have been trying to make him with a more innocent look by showing childhood pictures and providing witnesses who were childhood friends with him. One of his old friends was asked why she was crying during the trial, she answered, “Because I really miss the person that I knew, he was a good friend, a supporter. He was just there for me.” Going further back into Tsarnaev’s past, the defense presented three elementary- and middle-school teachers who presented the picture of a model student.

No matter how “good” Tsarnaev’s lawyers make him out to appear, the destruction, loss of lives, and mass scale injuries that he has been accused off will never be forgotten by the people of Boston.  Whether the trial results in a death verdict or life sentence, the victims and their families will forever be “Boston Strong.”