Defence pleads for clemency
The jury convicted Bowers on June 16, after five hours of deliberations, on all of the 63 counts he faced. The same jurors now must decide whether Bowers is eligible for the death penalty.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL, AP) – The gunman convicted in the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history had psychotic, delusional, and paranoid symptoms that made him unable to “read the world appropriately” or make proper decisions, his lawyer said, launching an effort to persuade jurors to spare his life.
Robert Bowers had a psychotic condition going back to childhood, as well as serious brain defects and a history of suicide attempts, defence 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 defence 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.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Troy Rivetti said the government was prepared to rebut any mental-health defence.
Bowers clearly formed the intent to kill everyone he could find in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018, Rivetti said. He called the magnitude of Bowers’ crimes staggering.
“He came to kill,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant entered the Tree of Life synagogue, a sacred place to gather and pray, and he murdered 11 innocent worshippers.”
Bowers, flipping through papers, gave little indication that he was paying attention to the lawyers’ statements. He has shown little reaction throughout the trial.
Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin in Pittsburgh, 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 of the 63 counts he faced. The same jurors now must decide whether Bowers is eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors first have to show proof of intent and at least one aggravating factor that made the killings more heinous.
Rivetti told the jury that many of Bowers’ victims were frail and elderly. He displayed a photo of a cane left on a pew by Bernice Simon, who was shot and killed as she attempted to tend to her mortally wounded husband, both in their 80s.
Brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal both had intellectual disabilities, could not read, and “sometimes needed help tying their shoes”, Rivetti said. “And this defendant shot and killed them in their synagogue.”
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