Abstract
It would be easy to muster moral arguments for the jury to take what some might consider the easy way out and give Dzhokhar Tsarnaev life in prison after being convicted of 30 charges in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing. The trial's penalty phase, which began earlier this week, is taking place in Massachusetts--a state that banned capital punishment decades ago and where nearly two-thirds of residents think Tsarnaev should get life in prison. Furthermore, most executions in the U.S. have occurred in states that legally recognize the death penalty and not under federal law, under which this case was tried.