pittsburgh: An antisemitic truck driver who expressed hatred for Jews was found guilty on Friday of breaking into a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting anyone he could find, killing 11 worshippers in a hate crime for which he faces the death penalty.

After Robert Bowers' own solicitors admitted at the beginning of the trial that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018, in the deadliest attack on Jews in US history, the guilty verdict was inevitable.

The federal trial has now entered the penalty phase, which is anticipated to last several weeks, and jurors must now decide whether the 50-year-old should be put on death row or given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

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Bowers was charged with 63 criminal offences, including obstruction of the free exercise of religion that resulted in death and hate crimes. His attorneys had proposed a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence, but the prosecution declined, choosing to go to trial and seek the death penalty instead. The majority of the victims' families endorsed the choice.

A prosecutor told jurors on Thursday that Bowers turned a revered place of worship into a "hunting ground," choosing his victims based on their religion. Prosecutor Mary Hahn requested that the jury "hold this defendant accountable... and hold him accountable for those who cannot testify." She did this by reading the names of each of the 11 victims he killed.

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Bowers shot and injured seven more people while carrying an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, five of whom were responding police officers.
Evidence of his deep-seated hatred for Jews and immigrants was presented by the prosecution. Over the course of 11 days of testimony, jurors learned that Bowers had shared or liked a lot of content on the far-right social media site Gab that was antisemitic and white supremacist and that he had praised Hitler and the Holocaust. Bowers reportedly told police that "all these Jews need to die," according to Hahn.

One survivor described being shot in the arm before realising her 97-year-old mother had been shot and killed next to her during her testimony about the terror she felt that day. After touching her mother's dead body and calling out "Mommy," Andrea Wedner, the trial's final witness, told the jury that SWAT officers led her to safety.

After Bowers' guilt has been proven, the jury will likely hear testimony from survivors and the loved ones of the victims who passed away about the terrible effects of his crimes. The penalty phase is slated to begin the following week.

Bowers' attorneys made it clear they would concentrate their efforts on trying to save his life by choosing not to present a defence during the trial's guilt phase. They intend to present proof that Bowers suffers from epilepsy, schizophrenia, and other brain disorders. Judy Clarke, the defence attorney, has also attempted to cast doubt on Bowers' motivation, insinuating to the jury that his rampage was not driven by religious hatred but rather by his hallucinatory conviction that Jews were committing genocide by aiding refugees in settling in the United States.

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Since the attack, the three congregations that shared the synagogue building—Dor Hadash, New Light, and Tree of Life—have spoken out against bigotry in general and antisemitism in particular. The Tree of Life congregation is also developing a plan to renovate the synagogue structure, which is still standing but has been closed since the shootings. The complex would include a sanctuary, museum, memorial, and centre for combating antisemitism.

Three years had passed since President Joe Biden pledged to work to abolish the death penalty both federally and in states that still practise it during his 2020 presidential campaign. To review policies and procedures, his attorney general, Merrick Garland, has temporarily halted executions. However, federal prosecutors continue to make a strong effort to uphold existing death sentences and, in some circumstances, to pursue the death penalty at trial for crimes that are eligible, as in Bowers' case.