Only 15 percent of Mass. residents support the death penalty for Tsarnaev

Defense rests in Boston Marathon bombing trial

last updated 27 April 2015

A new poll shows that support for the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has decreased in recent months among Massachusetts residents.

Only 15 percent of Boston residents believe that Tsarnaev should be executed, according to the poll. And while almost a third of Massachusetts residents reported support for the death penalty, just 18.9 percent thought Tsarnaev should receive it. That's a significant decrease from a Boston Globe poll in September 2013, which found that 33 percent of Massachusetts residents favored the death penalty for the bomber.