Opening statements began Tuesday in the federal hate crimes trial of the man accused of fatally shooting 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018, the deadliest ever attack on a Jewish community in the US.
Robert Bowers, 50, has pleaded not guilty to 63 charges, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death. Bowers could face the death penalty.
Jury selection began in late April, with 12 jurors and six alternates seated last week. The trial is expected to last until July.
The charges stem from the heinous shooting in which Bowers allegedly stormed into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood on the morning of Saturday, October 27, 2018. The synagogue was hosting three congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light, for weekly Shabbat services.
Armed with three handguns and an AR-15 rifle, he shot out a large window near the entrance to the synagogue and then opened fire on congregants, according to the indictment. He was shot multiple times by police and ultimately surrendered and was taken into custody. Authorities have said they believe he acted alone.
The mass shooting left 11 people dead and six wounded, including four police officers who responded to the scene. Among the dead were a 97-year-old great-grandmother, an 87-year-old accountant and a couple who were married at the synagogue more than 60 years earlier.
For weeks before the shooting, Bowers posted attacks on immigrants and Jewish people on Gab, a small social media platform then used by far-right extremists. He particularly criticized migrants as "invaders" and repeatedly disparaged the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a non-profit providing support to refugees.
The Justice Department said minutes before storming inside the building, Bowers logged onto Gab and wrote, "I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."
He also made antisemitic comments during the shooting and while receiving medical care indicating his desire to "kill Jews," according to a superseding indictment.
The mass shooting is part of a broader rise in antisemitism in recent years. A year afterward, a 19-year-old killed one person and wounded three others at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California -- violence exemplifying the ongoing threat to American Jewry.
This is the 2nd death penalty trial of Biden era
The main facts of the case are not in debate, so the primary thrust of the case will be whether the defendant should be sentenced to the death penalty.
If he is found guilty of the charges, a penalty phase will follow, in which the jury will be tasked with deciding his punishment. The latter phase is likely to include personal details about Bowers' life attorneys will argue make him more or less deserving of the death penalty.
Prosecutors have cited several reasons for pursuing the death penalty, saying Bowers' antisemitic views played a role in the shooting; the shooting was intentional; and Bowers showed no remorse, according to a federal notice to seek the death penalty.
His defense team has proffered a plea deal: life in prison in exchange for removing the possibility of the death penalty, court documents show. But federal prosecutors have not budged.
The defense has argued Bowers has serious mental illness and diagnosed him with schizophrenia, brain impairments and epilepsy. The team is led by defense attorney Judy Clarke, who has represented high-profile death penalty defendants including the Boston Marathon bomber and the Unabomber.
The federal government's use of the death penalty has split some of the victims in the shooting. Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light Congregation and President Donna Coufal of Dor Hadash Congregation wrote letters to former Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 against the death penalty.
"A drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve," Perlman wrote.
However, the families of nine of the 11 victims wrote to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle last year expressing their support for the death penalty in this case.
"Allowing the defendant to plead out will rob us of our 'day in court' and will prevent the Justice Department from punishing the perpetrator to the full extent of the law, as we have sought for the past four-plus years," they wrote.
This is only the second federal death penalty case to be prosecuted under the Biden administration. In the first case, the terrorist who drove a U-Haul truck into cyclists and pedestrians on a New York City bike path was sentenced to life in prison after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision for death.
At the same time, the Biden administration has put a moratorium on federal executions. Under the Trump administration, 13 death row inmates were executed over a six-month period from July 2020 to January 2021. Previously, there had been no federal executions in nearly two decades.