Pittsburgh synagogue gunman Robert Bowers guilty of killing 11 in the deadliest attack on Jews in US history
- Jurors must now decide whether the 50-year-old truck driver should receive the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison without parole
- Bowers had barged into the place of worship with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, killing 11 congregants and wounding seven people, including police officers
A truck driver who spewed hatred of Jews was convicted on Friday of barging into a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting everyone he could find, killing 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror for which he could be sentenced to die.
The guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion after Robert Bowers’ own lawyers conceded at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018, in the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.
Jurors must now decide whether the 50-year-old should be sent to death row or sentenced to life in prison without parole as the federal trial shifts to a penalty phase expected to last several weeks.
Bowers was convicted of all 63 criminal counts he faced, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. His lawyers had offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence, but prosecutors refused, opting instead to take the case to trial and pursue the death penalty. Most of the victims’ families expressed support for the decision.
“I am grateful to God for getting us to this day,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation, who survived the attack, said in a written statement. “And I am thankful for the law enforcement who ran into danger to rescue me, and the US Attorney who stood up in court to defend my right to pray.”