A federal jury last week convicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on all charges stemming from the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and Stephanie Schreiber Bland is satisfied.
‘I’m so happy about the verdict,? said the 28-year-old Oxford resident. ‘He deserves everything that he’s getting.?
Tsarnaev and his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan, planted two shrapnel-filled pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the race. They both exploded, killing three spectators, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounding more than 260 other people.
Bland was running in the marathon when the bombs exploded. She was actually right in the middle of all the chaos and carnage. Bland was at the 26.1-mile mark when the bombs went off in front of her at the finish line and behind her.
‘The streets were covered with blood and there were people without their limbs,? said Bland during an interview with the Leader just days after the attack. ‘There were screams. Everyone grabbing everyone. It was absolutely horrifying . . . It was an awful nightmare that you never want to think of and never want to see.?
Ethnic Chechens who moved to the United States from Russia more than 10 years ago, prosecutors said the Tsarnaev brothers wanted to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim nations.
Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts against him, 17 of which are punishable by death. The jury must now decide whether he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.
Bland believes he should be sentenced to the latter.
‘He deserves to sit in jail,? she said. ‘Him getting the death penalty would be like an easy way out.?
It was reported that during closing arguments, one of Tsarnaev’s defense attorneys claimed he had fallen under the influence of his radical brother and had it not been for Tamerlan, the attack would not have happened.
Bland doesn’t buy it.
‘He’s a grown man and he made those decisions,? she said. ‘He went into it knowing that he was going to harm people. He deserves every count against him.?
Over the last two years, Bland has worked very hard to heal the emotional trauma she suffered as a result of the terrorist attack.
‘I feel like I’ve made big strides overcoming it,? she said.
She ran in last year’s marathon with the idea that she was going to finish what she started. Bland was one of 5,700 runners who never crossed the finish line in 2013 because of the bombing, but last year, she completed the world-famous race in 3 hours, 45 minutes.
Even though Bland’s participated in a number of races since the attack, the frightful specter of that day continued to haunt her whenever she competed.
That fear finally left her last September when she completed a full Iron Man in Maryland. An Iron Man competition includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run.
‘I was so excited about it. I had no hesitation. I wasn’t nervous,? Bland said. ‘That was the first race I went into where I wasn’t thinking something could happen at the end, which was huge because all summer when I raced, I went into it thinking every time I finished, something could happen.?
Although she qualified for this year’s Boston Marathon, which will take place April 20, Bland won’t be among the runners because she’s pregnant with her second child.
A baby girl is due on June 16.
‘I can’t wait to watch the Boston Marathon on TV,? she said. ‘I wish I could be there, but I think I might go into labor if I run it.?