The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing killed 3 and injured hundreds, leading to a landmark domestic terrorism prosecution and Supreme Court death penalty ruling.
Key Facts
- Date
- April 15, 2013
- Deaths
- 3 (plus 1 officer died later)
- Injured
- Hundreds, including 12 who lost limbs
- Perpetrators
- Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
- Charges (Dzhokhar)
- 30, including use of weapon of mass destruction
- Supreme Court ruling
- Death sentence upheld, March 4, 2022
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, self-radicalized by Islamist extremism and motivated by U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, constructed improvised pressure cooker bombs using instructions from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's online magazine, with no direct ties to outside terrorist organizations.
During the 117th Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, the Tsarnaev brothers detonated two homemade pressure cooker bombs near the finish line, killing three people and injuring hundreds. A subsequent manhunt ended with Tamerlan killed during a Watertown shootout and Dzhokhar captured hiding in a boat on April 19.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted on 30 charges and sentenced to death; the sentence was initially vacated by the First Circuit Court of Appeals but ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Tsarnaev on March 4, 2022, setting a significant precedent for terrorism-related capital punishment cases.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Side B
1 belligerent