On April 15, 2013, twin bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon. The bombs took the lives of three spectators and wounded more than 260 mothers, fathers, and children. The bombs had been placed near the finish line by brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (19) and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26) who spent their early years in Kyrgyzstan but moved to the United States about 10 years prior to the bombings. After placing the bombs the two fled, which led the Boston police force to shut down the area for a massive manhunt. They successfully captured Dzhokhar, however Tamerlan was killed during a shootout between the forces and the brothers.

For the past two years, Dzhokhar has been confined to a hospital bed awaiting sentencing. Last year, he was charged with using and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death. He now waits to hear his sentence – the death penalty or life without parole in the ADX Florence Prison in Fremont County, Colorado. On April 21, 2015, the same jury that found him guilty on 30 counts related to the bombings began their deliberation on whether Dzhokhar should be put to death or rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

Interestingly, 53% of Americans say he should be put to death, while the other 45% think he should spend the rest of his life at ADX (CNN). The area in which the bombings took place strongly favors death for Dzhokhar by about 20%. However, if Dzhokhar was sentenced to life in prison, he would certainly suffer, maybe even more than in hearing the death sentence attached to his name.

ADX is a supermax prison which houses male inmates who have been deemed the most dangerous criminals in the United States. About 100 miles south of Denver, ADX is located on a 37-acre piece of land surrounded by the tightest security. The six-level prison houses some of the country’s most violent inmates. Zacarias Moussaoui, conspirer of the 9/11 attacks, Timothy McVeigh, mastermind behind the Oklahoma City bombings, and Faisal Shahzad, perpetrator of the Times Square car bombing attempts all live within the walls of ADX. These criminals spend about 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, which has been proven to cause anxiety, depression and many types of paranoia that often lead to self-harm.

At Madison High School, many of the students favor life without parole for Dzhokhar. About 93% of the polled students think living in ADX is the harsher punishment and that the death penalty can be somewhat of an escape for Dzhokhar. Madison Dodger Online will continue to track the jury’s progress and will update as soon as Dzhokhar’s fate has been decided.