By Caitlin Walsh, News Staff

Two hundred and ninety days after the Boston Marathon bombings, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the death penalty would be sought in the case against the remaining alleged bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was indicted on 30 counts – including using a weapon of mass destruction – after the bloody April 15 attacks that killed three and injured hundreds more.

In Massachusetts, there is currently no state death penalty. Federal cases can be tried in Massachusetts though, and thus the death penalty may be sought that way, as it is in this case. The fact that Holder decided to seek it took few experts by surprise, including renowned criminologists James Alan Fox and Jack Levin.

“Part of the reason I believe the case is being handled in federal instead of state court is because of the death penalty,” Fox, who is currently The Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern as well as one of the world’s leading criminologists, said.

His lack of surprise, however, did not equate to agreement with the decision.

“I am opposed to the death penalty in all cases everywhere,” he said, going on to explain that, especially in this case, the death penalty would just further the cause of Tsarnaev supporters, those who believed in the brothers’ anti-American “message.”

“If they have anti-American sentiments, it’ll solidify their feelings.”

Fox also said, however, that he can see why the government chose to go the route they did.

“Part of the issue for the government is, if they didn’t pursue it in this case, how could they in a number of cases that are less serious?” he said. “I don’t agree with it, but I’m not surprised.”

Earlier, Fox addressed his stance on the issue of the death penalty for Tsarnaev in his Boston.com-hosted blog, “Crime and Punishment.” He further backed up his opinion by writing about the fact that, in 2008, then Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a supporter of capital punishment, urged for the death penalty to not be sought for 9/11 terrorists at Guantanomo to avoid “casting them as martyrs.”  He also expressed exactly what he thinks the punishment for Tsarnaev should be.

“He should then have the exact same fate as many other convicted mass murderers, by living and dying in painful obscurity, hidden away from the spotlight of the media and worldwide attention that many criminals find sustaining and reason enough to die,” Fox wrote.

The death penalty is only considered in crimes of first degree murder, where the actions were premeditated rather than spontaneous. According to Jack Levin, the Irving and Betty Brudnick Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern, the death penalty is likely to be carried out “when the circumstances are particularly heinous.”

Levin, like Fox, said he was unsurprised by Holder’s decision.

“Politically, Holder will have plenty of support for seeking the death penalty,” he said. “It is highly unlikely that an insanity defense has even a slight chance of being successful. Juries simply will not buy it. And there seems to be sufficient physical and circumstantial evidence to convict.”

He acknowledged the possibility of a plea bargain with the defendant for a life sentence without parole in exchange for information, but, he said, “I am not sure what sort of information that would be.”

Thirteen days after the announcement that the death penalty would be sought, US District Court Judge George A. O’Toole set the trial date for Nov. 3, according to court documents. The government had requested a trial date for this fall, which O’Toole found more reasonable than the September 2015 date requested by the defense.

Levin addressed the trial date, noting that the defense would try to postpone, however, “Justice is not served by keeping a defendant incarcerated for years without convicting him.”

“The most likely outcome is a guilty verdict and a sentence of death,” he said. “I understand that many residents of the Commonwealth are against the death penalty. But I also believe that many local residents will see this as an exceptional case. They will argue: if anyone deserves to be executed, it is this defendant. The jury will have the same sentiment.”

The lack of surprise was shared by students, as well. Current sophomore Austin Hunt, an architecture major with a minor in political science, certainly wasn’t.

“I hoped and nearly assumed that he would be sent to death as soon as he was caught four days later,” he said, noting that he is a supporter of capital punishment, as well. “I hope the government goes through with capital punishment in the case of the marathon bomber because he actively attacked Americans on our own soil … I do not believe that the deaths of the bombing victims and the security officer that he and his brother killed on the following Thursday night should prompt us to pay for his survival as he does nothing to benefit society.”

Hunt himself was not at the Marathon — an interview in Watertown preoccupied him that morning. In fact, he said, he was unaware that the Marathon was that day until he got off the Green Line at Copley Square and noticed the large amounts of people gathered.

“I remembered being right there in Copley Square only hours before, so I felt grateful for my safety and hoped for the safety of those involved in the tragedy,” he said.