Unit 1012 (@VFFDP)

OPINION With death penalty reinstated for Boston Marathon bomber, Doylestown survivor reflects on sentence Phil Gianficaro The Intelligencer Amy O’Neill’s 80-year-old father is in favor of it. So, too, are the legions of friends of the 52-year-old licensed professional counselor in Doylestown. Presumably in favor of it are the hundreds of injured survivors, some of whom lost limbs in the blast or required amputation. A good guess is those in favor of it are the family members of the three who were killed in the blasts, including an 8-year-old boy, on that terrible day in Boston nine years ago. Even one of O’Neill’s sons, who back then at age 12 asked her if it was OK to feel that way. A boy asking for permission, looking to his injured mom to justify his feelings. What happened to his mom left a mark on his psyche back then and, more recently, on the 22-year-old college student’s person, just below the left collarbone: A tattoo of the date of the heinous crime, April 15, 2013. Despite being injured in the terrorist bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, Doylestown's Amy O'Neill remains opposed to the death penalty, which was reinstated recently for accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Everyone is in favor, it seems, of executing Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 28, who again faces death after the recent US Supreme Court 6-3 vote to reinstate the death penalty in his case that was vacated by the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston in 2020 due to errors by the prosecution and presiding judge. Everyone in favor of the death penalty but O’Neill herself. “I was in the courtroom in Boston when Tsarnaev was sentenced to death the first time, in 2015,” said O’Neill, while sipping hot tea at Nonno’s Italian Coffee Parlor in Doylestown the other day. “We all knew this was a death penalty case going in. “You know, I’ve been all over the map on the death penalty. I can conceptualize it. When I was in high school, I wrote a paper in favor of the death penalty. But when you’re asked now if you’d be OK for them to put someone to death, it’s very different. “My values on life are such that you’re being asked to be part of a decision here to put someone to death. I’m a humanist. Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing. I don’t know. I just can’t say I agree with the death penalty.” O’Neill was in the final mile of the 26.2-mile event. The finish line was in sight. It was just before 3 p.m. Then, bedlam. The bombs exploded. Death and blood and screaming and panic and sirens. Hundreds were injured. Battlefield carnage is how the Court of Appeals described the scene. O’Neill wounded in the center of a world spinning out of control. https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/2022/03/11/doylestown-survivor-boston-marathon-bombing-disagrees-death-penalty-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-amy-oneill/9446711002/