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Local prosecutor talks about next steps for Boston Bomber

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev says that he’s sorry for the irreparable harm he’s caused and that he prays for the victims.

Tsarnaev addressed the court for the first time Wednesday at his sentencing hearing.

He gave a five-minute speech that included religious references and praise of Allah.

And then, the judge sentenced him to death.

The 21-year-old will be executed in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Attorney Larry Mackey, a partner with Barnes & Thornburg, prosecuted another infamous bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

“It’s a sad story of another act of domestic terrorism, with absolutely, totally innocent individuals suffering the result,” said Mackey. “Deadly in many cases, because of the political agenda of some defendant.”

As the world watched the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, it took Mackey back two decades to Oklahoma City.

Mackey says even in the cases of killers like McVeigh and Tsarnaev, the death penalty is always a controversial and emotionally-charged sentence.

“Even the experience in Oklahoma City with 168 victims, there were in that case, like there was in this particular case, many family members who had lost loved ones who were opposed to the death penalty,” remembers Mackey. “It is a lightning rod in this country and when you grab hold of it, you’re going to get lots of different reactions.”

Mackey says the only thing that’s certain right now is that Tsarnaev will now be moved out of Boston.

“He’s too high a security risk for him to stay in that kind of a facility,” said Mackey.

Instead, Mackey says if Tsarnaev appeals, he expects him to be sent to Colorado, before coming to Indiana.

“It’s not uncommon for example to go to the Supermax in Colorado where lots of the other famous bombers – The Unabomber, Ramzi Yousef of the World Trade Center etc. – are housed. So, it’s possible this defendant will be housed there until the appeals have been exhausted,” Mackey said.

Mackey says that is a secure facility.

“I visited that prison in fact, Terry Nichols is there, the co-defendant to Tim McVeigh, and nobody’s breaking out of there anytime soon.”

Mackey says because this is a federal case, the appeals process should be over pretty quickly. He says Tsarnaev could be here in Indiana within one or two years.

How long he could be on death row before being executed is also up in the air. The average inmate is on death row for 10 years before being executed.

Timothy McVeigh waited just four years. There is also the fact that there is a moratorium on the death penalty in the United States right now that could drag out Tsarnaev’s sentence.

For more information on the death penalty in the US, click here.