Defendant in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre carried out attack, defense acknowledges as trial begins
PITTSBURGH — The trial of the man charged in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history opened Tuesday with his own lawyer acknowledging that he planned and carried out the 2018 massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue and made hateful statements about Jewish people.
Robert Bowers went to Tree of Life synagogue and “shot every person he saw,” defense attorney Judy Clarke acknowledged in her opening statement.
Bowers, 50, could face the death penalty if he's convicted of some of the 63 counts he faces in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack, which claimed the lives of 11 worshippers from three congregations who shared the building. Charges include 11 counts each of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and hate crimes resulting in death.
In the long run-up to the trial, Bowers' lawyers did little to cast doubt on whether he was the gunman and instead focused on trying to save his life. Bowers, a truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, had offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but federal prosecutors turned him down.
In her opening statement, Clarke questioned whether Bowers was acting out of hatred or an irrational belief that he needed to kill Jews to save others from the genocide he claimed they were enabling by helping immigrants come to the U.S.
