Image of Boston bomber showing middle finger released

Photograph of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shows him giving the middle finger to a security camera

The US Department of Justice has issued a photograph of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, showing him giving the middle finger to a security camera inside a holding cell on July 10th, 2013.

Prosecutors on Tuesday began their case to sentence Tsarnaev to death, with assistant US attorney Nadine Pellegrini showing the photograph, exhibit 1595, to the jury. The image was taken from surveillance footage at John J Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston on the day of his first court appearance in 2013.

“This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,” Pellegrini said. “Unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged.”

Tsarnaev, a 21-year-old ethnic Chechen, was found guilty on April 8th of killing three people and injuring 264 at the marathon finish line and fatally shooting a police officer as he and his older brother, Tamerlan, prepared to flee three days later.

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The sentencing phase is expected to last about four weeks, after which the same jury that convicted Tsarnaev will decide between the death sentence or life in prison. Reuters