Assuming the likely years of appeals are not successful, convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s recently-imposed death sentence could be the first execution of a terrorist in the United States in the post-9/11 era.

The jury’s death sentence arrived Friday, just two years after the April 15, 2013 bombing. That event killed three people and injured over 260.

The jury in Friday’s decision unequivocally denied the central argument of Tsarnaev’s defense, that his big brother’s weighty influence was responsible for his descent into terrorism. Also relevant to their decision to impose the death penalty against the 21-year-old was his apparent lack of remorse.

The sentence brought some satisfaction to the people of Boston, if a grim one Karen Brassard, who caught shrapnel in her legs said, simply, that “We can breathe again.”

Fourteen hours after the beginning of deliberations spread over three days, Tsarnaev stood before the court, receiving his fate with his hands folded and head down slightly. The lawyers who have worked to defend him left without comment.

The sentence was announced to the prisoner’s father, Anzor Tsarnaeve, by telephone. Upon hearing the news all the way from the Russian region of Dagestan, the man was characterized by a reporter as letting out a deep moan and hung up.

The death penalty could only have been imposed if the twelve-member federal jury voted unanimously. If not, the student at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth would have been sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole.

There were 30 charges against Tsarnaev and he was convicted last month on all counts. Among them was his guilt in the killing of an MIT police officer during the getaway.