The jury deciding whether Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will get the death penalty saw a video Wednesday of him giving the middle finger to a surveillance camera in his cell at the federal courthouse.
The video was taken July 10, 2013, about three months after the bombing.
The prosecution presented the video and still image to the jury during the testimony of Gary Oliviera, a U.S. Marshals Service employee who was viewing the video when Tsarnaev made the gesture, according to the Boston Globe.
Prosecutors referenced the video and showed a still image from it during their opening statement and said it showed Tsarnaev to be “unconcerned, unrepentant, and unchanged” after the bombings.
Courtroom sketch of the #Tsarnaev middle finger photo. http://t.co/zEmRWN5yAv
According to the Globe, the video was shown to the jury after a request from Tsarnaev’s defense team, which hoped the 30-seconds would add context. Tsarnaev can be seen fixing his hair and making another gesture, putting his index and middle fingers up in a “V” shape, before extending just his middle finger to the camera.
Tsarnaev was found guilty of all 30 counts in the Marathon bombing trial, 17 of which carry the death penalty. The bombing killed three people and injured hundreds. Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, then killed a MIT police officer while on the run and engaged in a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts.
The jury is deciding whether to give Tsarnaev the death penalty or life in prison.
