Keller @ Large: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Is Pure Evil
BOSTON (CBS) - Do you believe in pure evil?
I do, and I think we're seeing it in human form at the defense table in the Boston Marathon mass-murder trial, in the person of admitted killer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
President Obama used the term "pure evil" recently to describe the bloodthirsty savages of ISIS, and there's no argument there. But the descriptions of Tsarnaev, slouching and smirking his way through graphic testimony of the carnage he and his evil brother inflicted on innocent Marathon spectators, portray a different sort of horror.
Although the Tsarnaev brothers didn't come from a wealthy family, like Osama bin Laden, they were privileged in many ways. They had good health, friends, and support from their community and from the taxpayers.
When we get to the excuse-making part of this trial, the defense attorneys you and I are paying for will apparently try to mitigate Dzhokhar's bloodlust. He was an immature pothead, they'll claim, manipulated by his deranged older brother.
But the evidence I see so far suggests he knew exactly what he was doing, that his thinking was not drug-addled and his actions were not directed by anyone else.
He wanted to kill, thought it through and committed his crimes with care, enjoyed doing them, and was mighty pleased with himself afterwards.
This is pure evil. His lawyers should be held to the highest possible standard of proof that it was anything less.
And I'll be watching the rest of this horrendous evidence for any sign that if he had it to do over again, he'd do a single thing differently.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
