Tsarnaev Tried to Make a Deal in Order to Save His Life

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tried to make a deal to save his life but prosecutors turned him down, according to newly unsealed court documents. The documents state that in the course of plea negotiations, Tsarnaev "offered to provide certain kinds of cooperation and assistance" and a guilty plea in return for a sentence of life imprisonment, NBC reports. Federal prosecutors declined to make a deal and Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in 2015 for the 2013 bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 270. "The government has consistently rejected Tsarnaev's conditional offers," the documents state.

Tsarnaev was shot in the face and jaw during a shootout with police. His brother Tamerlan was killed. The court documents also reveal that one of the reasons Tsarnaev was questioned in the hospital after his arrest was because only one of two remote-control detonators used in the attack was recovered, and the FBI feared the Tsarnaevs or an accomplice "had retained the other one for possible use with additional bombs." Tsarnaev —communicating via handwritten notes—said he and his brother had acted alone. Lawyers for the 25-year-old, who is in solitary confinement at the federal Supermax prison in Colorado, have cited the hospital confession in their argument for a new trial, the Boston Herald reports. (Al-Qaeda has warned of "grave consequences" if Tsarnaev is executed.)