Boston bomber trial: US attorney general calls death penalty a 'fitting punishment'

Read the full statement from Attorney General Loretta Lynch

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday was handed the death penalty for his role in the deadly bombings at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.

Pending appeals, Tsarnaev will be killed by lethal injection, but the appeals process could take years. The only other option available to the jury was to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the death penalty a "fitting punishment" for the crime shortly after the sentence was handed down. Read her full statement below:

"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev coldly and callously perpetrated a terrorist attack that injured hundreds of Americans and ultimately took the lives of three individuals: Krystle Marie Campbell, a 29-year-old native of Medford; Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; and Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester who was watching the marathon with his family just a few feet from the second bomb. In the aftermath of the attack, Tsarnaev and his brother murdered Sean Collier, a 27-year-old patrol officer on the MIT campus, extinguishing a life dedicated to family and service.

"We know all too well that no verdict can heal the souls of those who lost loved ones, nor the minds and bodies of those who suffered life-changing injuries from this cowardly attack. But the ultimate penalty is a fitting punishment for this horrific crime and we hope that the completion of this prosecution will bring some measure of closure to the victims and their families. We thank the jurors for their service, the people of Boston for their vigilance, resilience and support and the law enforcement community in Boston and throughout the country for their important work."

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