Peace activist Carlos Arredondo, known for his heroic actions to assist victims of the terrible Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, is not in agreement with the capital punishment imposed on convicted terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Speaking to daily tabloid La Teja a few weeks ago, Mr. Arredondo explained that:

“I was hoping for life in prison. What will happen now that he has been sentenced to die is that he will be made a martyr to those who practice radical Islam and terrorism. I wanted him to pay for his crime by spending the rest of his life locked up.”

Longtime readers of The Costa Rica Star are familiar with the saga of Mr. Arredondo. Born and raised in Costa Rica; he emigrated to the United States as a young man. He made headlines in 2004 after his firstborn son was killed in action in Iraq, which prompted him to burn a military vehicle out of desperation. His younger son was not able to cope and later committed suicide. Mr. Arredondo would later become an antiwar activist and the hero of the Boston Marathon; he is currently involved in advocacy for U.S. war veterans and their families.

The following account of the Tsarnaev sentencing is provided by our international news wire partner, Agencia EFE.

Washington, Jun 24 (EFE).– Federal Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. sentenced Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for carrying out, along with his brother, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and wounded 264.

Tsarnaev had admitted staging the attack, the worst on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, and he spoke on Wednesday for the first time at the trial and apologized “to victims and survivors.”

“I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering I have caused, and for the terrible damage I have done,” said Tsarnaev to a packed but silent Boston courtroom, as reported by The Boston Globe.

The judge’s sentence, which makes official the unanimous guilty verdict arrived at by the jury on May 15, does not put an end to the court proceedings, however, because now the defense may appeal, as it has said it will do, with the result that Tsarnaev could remain on Death Row for decades.

O’Toole said Wednesday that, as had been speculated, Tsarnaev will be placed on Death Row at the Terre Haute, Indiana, prison.

The death sentence against the 21-year-old Tsarnaev had been requested on the federal level, given that the state of Massachusetts abolished the practice in 1980.

In his final remarks to the accused, the judge responded to his allusions to Allah in his apology, saying that if Tsarnaev believes in a God who wants someone to kill people, he believes in a cruel God which cannot be the God of Islam.

The judge also said that nobody would remember that Tsarnaev’s teachers and friends liked him, but rather that he “murdered and maimed innocent people” and “did it willfully and intentionally.”

Before Tsarnaev was allowed to deliver his statement, more than 20 victims of the bombings gave impact statements in court expressing the pain and suffering they had experienced, although some of the victims said that they had forgiven him for his deed.

Tsarnaev was found guilty on May 15 of six of the 17 charges filed against him that could have carried the death penalty, although a total of 30 charges were filed.

Among the charges was using weapons of mass destruction. He and his brother, Tamerlan, who died a few days after the attack during a police pursuit, had placed backpacks containing homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The pair also killed an MIT police officer while they were being pursued. EFE