Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers sentenced to death
Bowers killed 11 people at the synagogue, including a 97-year-old woman
A jury has ruled that Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter Robert Bowers will face the death penalty.
Bowers, whose defence hoped to avoid the death penalty, learned of his fate around noon on Wednesday when jurors read their decision.
The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on 27 October 2018, left 11 people dead and became the most deadly antisemitic attack in US history.
The jurors determined that Bowers’ capacity to “appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct” was not impaired, and that his “capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of law” was not impaired.
The jurors spent two days deliberating before reaching their conclusions. All 12 jurors had to agree in order to impose the death penalty.
Bowers' legal team initially offered a plea deal to the prosecution, promising a guilty plea from the mass shooter if they agreed not to seek the death penalty. The prosecution refused the deal.
Defence attorney Judy Clarke offered a plea to the jury to spare Bowers’ life.
“We can’t rewind the clock and make it such that this senseless crime never happened,” she argued. “All we can really do is make the right decision going forward. And we are asking you to make the right decision, and that is life.”
She asked the jurors to consider the traumas of Bowers’ childhood and his mental illness when issuing their sentence, noting that “he succumbed to his mental illness, to his delusional beliefs, and brought us where we are today.”
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Park Dietz — who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution in the trials of John Hinkley Jr, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Regan, and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer — also testified for the prosecution regarding Bowers. He said Bowers suffered no delusions that would have called into question his intent to kill the worshippers at the synagogue.
Intent is one of three criteria that must be met before a jury can pass down a death sentence. A defendant must also be over the age of 18 and have at least one aggravating factor — hate crimes in Bowers case — to qualify for a death sentence.
The judge appeared emotional following the sentencing, and thanked the jury for their time.
The judge said that while they’ve given similar appreciation speeches to juries in the past, “I’ve never delivered it with as much sincerity as I did just now.”
A jury found Bowers guilty of all 63 charges against him during a trial in June.
Bowers’ death penalty is the first federal execution to be handed down during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Court will reconvene tomorrow at 9am, where Bowers’ death penalty will be formally rendered.