Boston ( CNN ) Now the real Boston Marathon trial can begin . A federal jury 's decision to convict Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of 30 charges related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings was the most anticlimactic of anticlimaxes . The 21-year-old 's lawyers admitted from the beginning that their client had participated in the horrific terrorist attack , which both scarred and strengthened this city . The outcome of this first phase may have been preordained , but nearly two years after the bombing , the trial has held Boston and the region in thrall — more so than I might have imagined . The case regularly lands on the front pages of our two daily newspapers , the Globe and the Herald , and often leads the local television newscasts . The Twitter feeds of reporters covering the trial are avidly followed . We have n't learned much new , although harrowing details about the deaths of the Tsarnaev brothers ' four victims have come out . More than anything , many people find something cathartic in seeing the seemingly insolent , unrepentant Tsarnaev being brought to justice . The only issue to be decided is whether Tsarnaev should be executed . Which is why the second phase of his trial is the one that really matters . Was Tsarnaev so thoroughly under the sway of his radicalized older brother , Tamerlan , that he should be spared lethal injection ? Or had this seemingly typical teenager transformed himself into a hardened jihadist who obsessed over al Qaeda propaganda such as the article `` Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom '' ? What kind of justice should Tsarnaev receive ? There is no death penalty in Massachusetts , and in September 2013 , according to a Globe poll , 57 % of respondents supported life in prison for Tsarnaev ; just 33 % said he should be executed . By moving the case into federal court , U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made it likely that Tsarnaev would receive the death penalty . Keep in mind that no members of the jury were deemed eligible to serve unless they stated beforehand that they were willing to consider putting Tsarnaev to death . But imagine a different scenario in which Tsarnaev had been allowed to plead guilty in return for a life sentence . He would have been denied the public stage he has been granted ; although he has not testified ( so far ) , his terrorist actions have been replayed over and over again for people to see the world over . The 2015 Boston Marathon will take place in less than two weeks , on Monday , April 20 . Thousands of runners will clog the 26.2-mile route , and tens of thousands will cheer them on — as they did last year , proving to the world that we will not be intimidated . And Tsarnaev 's lawyers will still be fighting for their client 's life . It is a natural if disturbing reaction to events like this that it 's easier to remember the names of the perpetrators than of their victims . But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a loser and a nobody . He should be allowed to fade away into the obscurity of a maximum-security prison cell . The people who deserve to be remembered are those he and his brother killed on Marathon Day — Martin Richard , Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu — and Sean Collier , the MIT police officer they executed in cold blood . It is they who should live on in our collective memories .
Dan Kennedy : After Boston Marathon bombing guilty verdict , now real trial -- the sentencing -- can begin . What justice should Tsarnaev get ? He says a plea might have been better , to keep bomber out of the news and let him fade into obscurity in maximum security cell . Kennedy : The people who deserve to be remembered are victims and MIT officer who was killed .