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Locals React After Boston Marathon Death Penalty Decision

LACKAWANNA COUNTY — It was a day that forever changed the nation: April 15, 2013. Two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing ...
boston bombing

LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- It was a day that forever changed the nation: April 15, 2013.

Two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

Jim Moran of Lackawanna County was right there as a marathon security guard near the site of the blasts.

"We always remember what we did that day," he said about himself and his fellow security guards.

Moran helped fire, police, and ambulance crews in the chaotic aftermath, helping people who were injured and getting others to safety.

Moran has been working at the Boston Marathon finish line for 20 years and he said despite what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is convicted of doing, Moran does not agree with the penalty of death.

"As much pain and turbulence and horror, I don't have any forgiveness, but I don't think it's our place to kill anybody," he said.

Other runners Newswatch 16 spoke with agree with the federal jury's decision for the death penalty.

"Yeah, I think so. He hurt a lot of people and I think he's getting what he deserves," said Michael Maleski of Moscow who was running at Lake Scranton Friday afternoon.

"I think the running community is such a tight knit community. I think this decision today will bring some closure, but you know we'll always have that reminder of the lives lost and the things that have changed based on the events of that day," said Bryan Dente of Dunmore.

Moran agrees that things will never be the same. The security alone at the Boston Marathon and other races across the country has been tightened.

Still, he said he has seen those hurt by the bombings moving on.

"I saw and assisted amputees to and across cross the finish line tent this year and in 2014," he said.

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