Jury poised to deliberate death penalty or life sentence for gunman in Pittsburgh synagogue massacre

By PETER SMITH and MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A jury is set to deliberate whether to impose the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison without parole on a truck driver who fatally shot 11 worshippers at a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. The same jurors who convicted 50-year-old Robert Bowers in June on 63 criminal counts listened to closing arguments in the penalty phase of his federal trial Monday. A prosecutor said Bowers was motivated by religious hatred when he entered Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 and opened fire, perpetrating the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Bowers’ lawyers blamed mental illness and a bad childhood in asking the jury to spare his life.