The gunman convicted in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history had psychotic, delusional and paranoid symptoms that made him unable to understand the world or make appropriate decisions, his lawyer said Monday, launching an effort to persuade jurors to spare his life.
Robert Bowers has had a psychotic condition since childhood, as well as serious brain defects and a history of suicide attempts, defense lawyer Michael Burt said on the opening day of the penalty phase of Bowers’ federal trial. Bowers was convicted this month in the 2018 killings of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The defense argues that Bowers was unable to form the requisite level of intent to allow the jury to impose a death sentence. Medical tests found Bowers’ brain to be “structurally deficient,” with symptoms of epilepsy and schizophrenia, Burt said.
Prosecutor Troy Rivetti, in his opening statement Monday, said the government was prepared to rebut any mental health defense.
Bowers, flipping through papers, gave little indication that he was listening to the lawyers’ statements. He has shown little reaction throughout the trial.
Prosecutors rested their case Monday afternoon in the first stage of the penalty phase — proving that the case is eligible for the death penalty — and the defense is slated to begin calling witnesses Tuesday. The jury must decide if the case is eligible for the death penalty before hearing further evidence and arguments on whether to impose it.
The death penalty has become a prominent topic in the 2024 presidential race. The federal death penalty wasn’t a high-profile issue until former President Donald Trump’s administration resumed executions in 2020 after a 17-year hiatus. With 13 inmates put to death in his last months in office, Trump oversaw more federal executions than any president in more than 120 years.
The first federal capital trial under Biden ended in March with jurors split on a death sentence, sparing the life of Islamic extremist Sayfullo Saipov for killing eight people in New York City.
Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, killed 11 members of three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life — who had gathered for Sabbath services in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. He also wounded two worshippers and five police officers.
The jury convicted Bowers on June 16, after five hours of deliberations, on all 63 counts he faced. The same jurors now must decide whether Bowers is eligible for the death penalty.
Bowers raged against Jews online, fixating on a Jewish refugee-aid organization that he accused of bringing in “invaders.” He then drove half an hour from his apartment to the synagogue, his car loaded with weapons and ammunition, and made “decision after decision” to pull the trigger, Rivetti said.
From the beginning, Bowers’ punishment — a death sentence or life in prison without parole — has been the only question in the case. His attorneys admitted he carried out the attack, offered only a token defense at trial, and have long signaled their focus would be on saving his life.
Before the trial, Bowers’ attorneys offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence, which prosecutors rejected. Most of the victims’ relatives support seeking the death penalty.
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“That was their comfort place, that was their safe place,” she said.
The sentencing phase of the trial was expected to last four to five weeks.