The video showed that shortly after he entered a holding cell, Mr. Tsarnaev looked at the camera and began primping his long, floppy hair. He stood on a bench and looked more closely into the camera, again as if into a mirror, and continued to fluff up his hair.
Then in very quick movements, he flashed a backward, two-fingered sign that Ms. Conrad called a “V sign,” and then the middle finger. The judge did not allow Ms. Conrad to characterize the fleeting gestures. But she clearly hoped the larger context would cast some doubt on the prosecution’s contention the day before that Mr. Tsarnaev had “one more message to send.”
The video was shown during the second day of the penalty phase of the trial, in which the jury, which has already found Mr. Tsarnaev guilty, is now weighing whether to sentence him to death or to life in prison.