A trucker who expressed his hatred of Jews was found guilty Friday of breaking into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and opening fire on people he passed, killing 11 worshipers in an anti-Semitic terrorist act that could earn him capital punishment.
It had been the senate that he would be found guilty since Robert Bowers’ own lawyers initially acknowledged that he attacked and killed congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27, 2018, in the deadliest incident against Jews in the city. United States history.
The trial now enters the sentencing phase, where the jury must decide whether to sentence the 50-year-old man to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. This process is expected to take several weeks.
Bowers was found guilty of 63 criminal charges, including fatal hate crimes and fatal obstruction of the free exercise of religion. His lawyers had offered to have him plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment, but prosecutors opted to go to trial seeking the death penalty. Most of the relatives of the victims expressed support for this decision.
The jury deliberated for five hours over two days before reaching a verdict. Bowers, wearing a dark sweater and blue shirt, had little reaction, as has often been the case during the trial.
Bowers turned a sacred house of worship into a “hunting ground,” targeting his victims because of their religion, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday. Reading the names of each of the 11 victims he killed, prosecutor Mary Hahn asked the jury to “hold this defendant accountable … and hold him accountable for those who cannot testify.”
Bowers, who was armed with an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, also wounded seven other people, including five police officers who responded to the report of the attack.
Prosecutors presented evidence of their deep-seated animosity toward Jews and immigrants. During 11 days of testimony, jurors learned that Bowers had posted, shared or “liked” anti-Semitic and white supremacist content on Gab, a social media platform popular with the far-right, and praised Hitler and the Holocaust. Bowers told police that “all these Jews need to die,” Hahn said.
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