A jury has now been handed the case of a gunman who opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, killing 11 worshippers in the process. Closing arguments were delivered in the trial on Thursday.
Prosecutor Mary Hahn said during her closing argument that the man accused of carrying out the shooting, 50-year-old Robert Bowers, was deserving of the death penalty after he planned the attack because of his hatred for Jews.
During the case, prosecutors alleged that he methodically went through the holy building, trying to kill as many people as possible.
“You know now how he hunted his victims throughout the synagogue on multiple floors through multiple rooms,” Hahn told the jury Thursday. “You know how he murdered congregants still wrapped in their prayer shawls and clutching their prayer books.
“We ask that you hold this defendant accountable for everything he did to the worshippers who survived and told you what happened that day, and hold him accountable for all those who could not tell you what happened that day.”
Bowers’ legal team did not dispute that he carried out the attack five years ago, but his attorney, Elsia Long, did argue that he did it because of his hatred for immigrants and the non-profit Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, not because of his hate for Jews.
“Stopping religious study was not his intent or motive,” Long said.
Bowers is facing 63 charges in relation to the shooting, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.
The charges also include 22 capital charges, which, if he is found guilty of a single charge, would move the trial to a separate penalty phase.
During this phase, the jury would listen to further evidence and decide whether or not he was deserving of the death penalty.
The trial has lasted more than two weeks, with the prosecution calling 60 witnesses to testify against Bowers, who is accused of carrying an AR-15 into the Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 and wounding six more, all because he hates Jewish people.
Prosecutors cited anti-semitic comments that Bowers made online and in person before and after the shooting. One officer who responded to the synagogue after the shooting testified that he had said, “All Jews had to die.”
The jury will now deliberate the case and 63 charges to determine whether or not he is guilty.
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