In court in Boston on Monday, convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev finally shed some tears during this the penalty phase of his trial.

It wasn’t from remorse for the deaths of three spectators and the maiming of hundreds of others during the most notorious event in recent Boston history. It was because of the testimony of various female relatives from Russia who described him — of course — as “a good boy,” a “very quiet boy,” who cried when he watched the death of Simba’s father in the film The Lion King. One of his aunts wept so uncontrollably that she had to be removed. Tsarnaev reached for the tissues, wiped tears from his eyes, and blew his aunt a kiss.

The Russian aunties weren’t the only females who pleaded on behalf on Tsarnaev in court. Last week a former teacher, Becki Norris, testified on Tsarnaev’s behalf to spare his life. On the same day as the aunts’ testimonies, Norris published a piece at the website of Boston’s NPR station WCUR, entitled “Why I Testified on Behalf of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.” She wrote,

Yes, he did the unforgivable. And yes, I still love him. And — this one is hard to fathom, I know — he is a human being who still needs love.

So I testified on Dzhokhar’s behalf, during the penalty phase of his trial. I testified to help the jury see why he might be spared the death penalty.

To show what a winsome little boy her former student was, she added this picture of the young Dzhokhar holding her newborn child.

You know who else was a sweet boy, a good boy?