article_snippet.sent: Some of these lessons learned are informed by the luxury of time and hindsight, others by various after-action reports and assessments, and others by the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in which a jury found him guilty of multiple counts.
article_snippet.sent: On Tuesday, the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's sentencing phase will begin, determining whether him will receive the death penalty.
article_snippet.sent: In national security circles, there is often a debate about whether the U.S. judicial system is well equipped for terrorism trials.
article_snippet.sent: Terrorism, the argument goes, is different from traditional crimes, and our system of evidence and cross-examination and the promise of counsel are not appropriate to transnational threats.
article_snippet.sent: Even if the argument were valid in some context -- where terrorists were picked up on battlegrounds abroad and evidence against terrorists might be difficult to obtain -- the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev made clear that the U.S. judicial system does work.
article_snippet.sent: What was amazing about a trial filled with so much emotion is that it was relatively unemotional.
article_snippet.sent: Prosecutors presented evidence.
article_snippet.sent: Defense attorneys challenged the witnesses.
article_snippet.sent: The defendant chose not to testify.
article_snippet.sent: A verdict was rendered.
article_snippet.sent: A verdict simplicity not only vindicated the capacity of our constitutional system to handle these cases, but also took the mythology (maybe even the romanticism) of terrorism out of the case.
article_snippet.sent: A verdict rendered Tsarnaev a common criminal.