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Apparently, prosecutors believe that whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be put to death for murdering innocent people at the Boston Marathon in 2013 should hinge somewhat on this photograph they showed as they wrapped up their opening arguments in the sentencing phase of Tsarnaev's trial this week.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a middle finger worth?" the 

It came after weeks of gruesome images, any of which could be considered enough to warrant the death penalty by anyone predisposed to render such a sentence. It came after a day of awful testimony from survivors.

But they've gotten pushed off to the side.

"He was flipping off America," Cullen wrote today.

Maybe, but we don't execute people in this country for 

It's an interesting play to emotions, which ignores the wishes of some of those who lost their loved ones in the bombing.

“This is a deeply personal issue and we can speak only for ourselves," Bill and Denise Richard, whose young son Martin was among those killed, wrote to the court before they're testimony yesterday.

"However, it is clear that peace of mind was taken not just from us, but from all Americans,” they wrote. “We honor those who were lost and wish continued strength for all those who were injured. We believe that now is the time to turn the page, end the anguish, and look toward a better future — for us, for Boston, and for the country.”

“Whenever someone speaks out against the death penalty, they are challenged to imagine how they would feel if someone they love were killed," Jennifer Lemmerman, whose brother, MIT police officer Sean Collier, was killed wrote on Facebook. "I’ve been given that horrible perspective and I can say that my position has only strengthened,’” she wrote. She's against the death penalty.

Karen Odom, whose husband had arteries severed by shrapnel doesn't have anything against the death penalty, but wants Tsarnaev in prison for life.

“We just think the death penalty is too good for him. We’d rather see him in jail forever,” she said.

Like the rest of America, the victims are divided on the question. So, too, probably, are jurors. That's where the picture in the jail cell comes in, Cullen notes.

Justice is blind. It's also emotional, particularly in matters of deciding who should live and whom should we kill.

Richard Johnson, who's drawing the trial for the 

, says he doesn't consider himself a bloodthirsty person. But after a day of testimony, he found it all nearly too much.

-- and with this afternoon's release of the image, domestically too -- it's all being overshadowed by a finger.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Apparently, prosecutors believe that whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man who murdered people at the Boston Marathon in 2013, should live or die hinges somewhat on a photograph.

Tsarnaev killed and maimed but did he flip off America?

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