The man who opened fire and killed 11 Jewish people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 was given the death penalty.
Robert Bowers was found guilty in June of attacking the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation on October 27, 2018, in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood.
Eleven worshippers were killed in the shooting and six more were injured. The Jewish community was the target of the bloodiest anti-Semitic terrorist attack in American history.
A federal jury decided that Bowers will be executed on Wednesday morning. Before reaching a unanimous verdict, the jury deliberated for more than 10 hours over the course of two days.
Bowers’ reaction to being given the death penalty was emotionless.
Judge Robert Colville reviewed the jurors’ comments to the 115 mitigating circumstances offered by Bowers’ defence before the jury’s recommendation was announced.
Although the jury accepted some mitigating circumstances, they disagreed with many of the defense’s main points, including the claim that Bowers had schizophrenia.
They concurred with the defence that Bowers had a challenging upbringing but disagreed with the claim that he was experiencing a “mental or emotional disturbance” at the time of the horrific murder.
All five aggravating reasons, including the defendant’s hate of Jews and lack of regret for his acts, were likewise supported by the jury.
Additionally, they discovered that Bowers targeted a Jewish-dominated area of Pittsburgh in order to “maximise the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes, and instill fear within the local, national, and international Jewish communities.”
After polling the jury, Judge Colville shed a few tears and thanked the members of the panel for their service. Colville stated, “I’ve never given it with as much sincerity as I did just now.”
Although they will “never achieve closure,” Rose Mallinger’s family said they still “feel a measure of justice has been served” in regards to Bowers’ killing of the oldest victim.
Other members of the Or L’Simcha Congregation made a media announcement for Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
Since President Joe Biden took office, Bowers’ sentencing is the first federal execution.
Since the federal government reintroduced the capital sentence in 1988, just 16 inmates have been put to death. 13 of those executions took place between July 2020 and January 2021, over a six-month span.
Since Biden became president and declared a moratorium, there have been no further federal executions.
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