--- title: Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court description: When bravado does battle with the brain, the brain will win canonical: https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-04T21:13:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:05.809Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court og:description: When bravado does battle with the brain, the brain will win og:url: https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e71903c286049d9/6987ea2fcd1bba73006f8da1/dzhokhar-tsarnaev.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: HORIZONTAL Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, photo released on April 19, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court twitter:description: When bravado does battle with the brain, the brain will win twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e71903c286049d9/6987ea2fcd1bba73006f8da1/dzhokhar-tsarnaev.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court ## Video: The Changes Since 2013's Boston Marathon [Watch (HLS stream): The Changes Since 2013's Boston Marathon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AG9ODEtm.m3u8) (1:26)  _Published 2015-04-20. The security plan for this year's race will be drastically different from 2013, yet similar to the one put in place the year prior._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large May 4, 2015 9:13 PM UTC  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, photo released on April 19, 2013. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, photo released on April 19, 2013.FBI/Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large May 4, 2015 9:13 PM UTC Savagery is harder than you think. As members of a highly social species, genetically coded for cooperation, compassion, and the powerful, nearly telepathic ability to experience what another person is feeling, we should not be terribly surprised that convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shed at least a few tears in court on Monday when his aunt took the stand in the trial’s penalty phase to plead for his life. We like to think that our criminal monsters are just that—monstrous, somehow fundamentally different from the rest of us. And in some cases that’s true: serial killer Ted Bundy is often described as sociopathic, a man incapable of empathy. Movie theater shooter James Holmes is thought to be schizophrenic, a disease that can indeed leave people incapable of feeling. But most of the time killers are people with the same emotional software as the rest of us. And just as happens with real software, theirs got corrupted somehow. When it comes to empathy, such a breakdown takes some doing. The human brain is wired with so-called mirror neurons, brain cells that draw us together by causing us to experience similar things at the same moment. It’s mirror neurons that explain why yawns are contagious, why a newscaster’s sudden laughing jag makes you laugh too, why newborns—who have never seen themselves in a mirror and thus have no idea what their faces look like—will open their mouths wide when an adult does. Up to 10% of the brain’s neurons are thought to have mirroring properties, which is a measure of how important they are. When Tsarnaev’s aunt took the stand, she began crying before she even spoke. When she did speak, she could manage to give only her name, her age and her place of birth before dissolving entirely and being allowed to step down. She was seated only 10 feet from her nephew, which made her a real and tactile presence. Tsarnaev’s cool indifference, which has been on display throughout the trial, has seemed at least partly 21-year-old bravado—magnified many times over by whatever psychological journey he took that allowed him to commit the horrific crime he did, and magnified still more by the certain knowledge that his life is over, that he will either be executed or spend the next half dozen or so decades in a cage. It pays, at least in public, to maintain a certain numbness in the face of that reality, lest it become overwhelming. But for a man-child who may be a horror but is not a Bundy, there are limits. Another person’s tears are limits. An aunt who, in a different time and place, would surely hug you is a limit. And mirror neurons—which populate the brain of the bomber as surely as they do the brain of the doctor or the mother or the person you love—are limits too. Tsarnaev ran out of emotional room today, and the sorrow he felt is just a small part of a penalty he will pay for many years. _Read next:_ [_Boston Bomber’s Teacher Says Tsarnaev ‘Always Wanted to Do the Right Thing’_](http://time.com/3841064/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-boston-bomber-teacher-testimony/?iid=time%5Freadnext) ### See Evidence From the Boston Bombing Trial  Prosecutors presented this image of a blood-stained, bullet-ridden message, allegedly written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the inside of a boat, to jurors as evidence in Boston on March 10, 2015. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  Prosecutors presented this image of a blood-stained, bullet-ridden message, allegedly written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the inside of a boat, to jurors as evidence in Boston on March 10, 2015. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  Prosecutors presented this image of a blood-stained, bullet-ridden message, allegedly written by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the inside of a boat, to jurors as evidence in Boston on March 10, 2015. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  This still image, presented as evidence at trial, shows the boat where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid after a gunfight with police. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  This still image captured from video shows brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev crouched behind a car during their April 2013 shootout with police. U.S. Department of Justice/Corbis  Evidence markers are seen on a street where Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev engaged in a gunfight with police. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  A 9mm Luger clip and bullet package sit next to a backpack and bag on a street where Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev engaged in a gunfight with police. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  A wallet containing Tamerlan Tsarnaev's drivers license is seen in a still handout image entered as evidence in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  A large fragment of a homemade pressure-cooker bomb that accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged with throwing at police officers during a gunfight in Watertown, Mass. on April 19, 2015, is seen embedded in the side of a Honda Civic that was parked near the site of the disturbance. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  An unexploded metal bomb filled with explosive powder and lined with metal pellets was entered as evidence in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  An unexploded metal bomb was entered as evidence in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  This still image capture from video, which was released as evidence in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, shows the chaos as a bomb explodes during the 2013 Boston Marathon. U.S. Department of Justice/EPA  A still image captured from surveillance video at the Boston Marathon shows the scene moments before a second bomb exploded as a man, marked with a circle by prosecutors (top R) and identified by them as defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, moves rapidly away from the spot near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013 in Boston. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  A still image captured from surveillance video at the Boston Marathon shows the moment when a second bomb exploded as a man, marked with a circle by prosecutors (top R) and identified by them as defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, moves rapidly away from the spot near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013 in Boston. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters  A still image captured from surveillance video at the Boston Marathon shows the moment when a second bomb exploded as a man, marked with a circle by prosecutors (top R) and identified by them as defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, moves rapidly away from the spot near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013 in Boston. U.S. Department of Justice/Reuters [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/"},"headline":"Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court","datePublished":"2015-05-04T21:13:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:05.809Z","description":"When bravado does battle with the brain, the brain will win","url":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/","keywords":["Psychology","Brain","Genes","Dzhokhar Tsarnaev","empathy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e71903c286049d9/6987ea2fcd1bba73006f8da1/dzhokhar-tsarnaev.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e71903c286049d9/6987ea2fcd1bba73006f8da1/dzhokhar-tsarnaev.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HORIZONTAL Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, photo released on April 19, 2013.","caption":"HORIZONTAL Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, photo released on April 19, 2013.","creditText":"FBI/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/","name":"Why Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Cried in Court"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Changes Since 2013's Boston Marathon","description":"The security plan for this year's race will be drastically different from 2013, yet similar to the one put in place the year prior.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/AG9ODEtm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-04-20T13:50:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AG9ODEtm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/","duration":"PT1M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3845965/tsarnaev-cried-why/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```