Day 27: Defense Turns To Chechen History

The Finish Line podcast is hosted by WBUR’s David Boeri and The Boston Globe’s Kevin Cullen, who share their insights and analysis in the federal death penalty trial of admitted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The defense for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been presenting the jury with a social history of his family. Today, in Day 27, the defense turned the focus to their ethnic homeland of Chechnya. Boeri and Cullen discuss how the long history of the Chechen people influenced the psychiatric well-being of Dzhokhar's father, whom a doctor testified had PTSD, and how his older brother Tamerlan became unhinged and abusive.