When news first broke that Dzokhar Tsarnaev would speak to the court in his sentencing hearing today, some wondered if the convicted terrorist behind the Boston Marathon bombing had finally decided to use the trial as a platform for jihadi propaganda. Instead, Tsarnaev used the opportunity to apologize to his victims, some of whom had delivered powerful impact statements just a few minutes earlier. “I am sorry for the lives I have taken,” Tsarnaev said, adding that “if there is any lingering doubt, I did it along with my brother.”

Judge George O’Toole sentenced Tsarnaev to death shortly afterward:

A US District Court jury had already sentenced Tsarnaev to death. US District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. formalized that sentence at the end of the hearing.

“I sentence you to the penalty of death by execution,” O’Toole said.

The judge told Tsarnaev he would be remembered as a symbol of evil.

“No one will remember that your teachers were fond of you, that you were funny, a good athlete,’’ he said. “Whenever your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you have done.’’

“What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed. … It was a monstrous self-deception. You had to forget your own humanity. The common humanity you shared with your brother Martin.’’ Martin Richard, 8, was the youngest of the three people killed in the bombing, at the finish line that day for a family outing.

The victims got their day in court, speaking directly to Tsarnaev. WCVB in Boston reports on their impact statements today, with one of the most powerful coming from the parents of the youngest murder victim. “We choose peace,” said the parents of Martin Richard. “That is what makes us different from him.”

The sister of slain police officer Sean Collier provided the most cutting remark, and probably the most accurate assessment of Tsarnaev’s evil. “He ran his own brother over with a car,” Jennifer Rodgers told the court. “No wonder he had no problem killing mine.”

The event did not go without incident. Police arrested a man at the courthouse after he parked at the courthouse, evading police roadblocks, and a search of his vehicle apparently produced a meat cleaver. The video shows the police also checking out the vehicle for any other suspicious material:

A security team surrounded the vehicle after the man allegedly went through a security barricade and parked in a restricted area outside the Moakley Courthouse shortly before 1 p.m.

The man was taken away from the area in handcuffs, and a bomb-sniffing dog was brought to check the vehicle.

CNN’s Wolf Blizter interviewed Nicolaus Czarnecki, a photographer who tells Blitzer that the man acted strange from the moment he parked — but apparently cooperated with police and showed them the knife:

Don’t expect the execution to take place soon. The US has sentenced nearly 100 people to death since Congress authorized the death penalty for certain crimes in the late 1980s, but have executed only three. Tsarnaev’s surprising allocution at sentencing will moot any possible claims of innocence on appeal, but there will be enough claims to keep appellate attorneys busy for a very long time. Ironically, Tsarnaev’s youth makes it at least somewhat more likely that he’ll face an actual execution than other death-penalty defendants as he’s much more likely to survive all of the appeals options that will unfold. We’ll be hearing about Tsarnaev for a long, long time.