Death is richly deserved, but given his age, the reality that opinion in Boston is against it, and the fact that the parents of the child he blew up asked the jury to spare his life, I’d say the odds of execution are 10 percent at best.

Credit to Holder’s DOJ for trying, though. Stand by for the verdict.

Update: Death it is. I’m shocked. Stand by.

Update: Silver lining for the “Free Jahar” nuts: The death sentence means he’s probably headed to the federal pen in Terre Haute to serve the next 30-40 years while his appeals are being exhausted. The alternative, a life sentence, was federal Supermax in Colorado. And between death and Supermax, it really is an open question which is worse.

Many of the more than 400 inmates spend as much as 23 hours a day alone in 7-by-12-foot concrete cells. Meals are slid through small holes in the doors. Bed is a concrete slab dressed with a thin mattress and blankets.

A single window about 42 inches high and 4 inches wide allows some natural light but is made so prisoners cannot see beyond the building. Cells have unmovable stools and desks made of concrete. Solid walls prevent prisoners from seeing other cells or having direct contact with other inmates…

Inmates have little contact outside of guards and prison staff. They must wear leg irons, handcuffs and stomach chains when taken outside their cells — and be escorted by guards. A recreation hour is allowed in an outdoor cage slightly larger than the prison cells. Inside the cage, only the sky is visible…

“For many people, being confined at ADX in what will amount to a life sentence there really is kind of a form of living death,” she said. “It just takes everything away from you. Your existence is limited to the four walls of this small cell and frankly not much else.”

Update: Loretta Lynch:

JUST IN: Attorney General Loretta Lynch issues statement on sentencing of Dzhokhar #Tsarnaev: pic.twitter.com/ZKXk81XkCO

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) May 15, 2015

Update: No way to know right now what cinched the death sentence for Tsarnaev, but I bet this gruesome testimony about what the bomb did to Martin Richard’s body had a role.