Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who killed 11 people is eligible for death penalty, jury says

Robert Bowers, the man who killed 11 people at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, is eligible for the death penalty, a federal jury said Thursday.

The jury in Pittsburgh deliberated for two hours over whether Bowers, 50, is eligible to be sentenced to life in prison or death after he was convicted last month on 63 charges related to the deadliest antisemitic attack ever in the United States.

The government is seeking capital punishment and if the panel ultimately recommends the death penalty, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville would have to impose it, according to media reports.

Bowers had spent six months planning the shooting and has since said that he regrets he did not kill more people. His defense attorneys argued that he could not form the intent required for the jury to impose capital punishment because he was impaired by mental illness and believed that he could stop a white genocide by murdering Jews. 

Jurors are now expected to hear from survivors and victims of the attack. They will have to unanimously agree that the mitigating factors do not outweigh the aggravating ones in order to formally place Bowers on death row.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.