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The
sentencing hearing comes a day after a jury unanimously voted
for the death penalty after finding Bowers guilty on 63 counts,
including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious
beliefs resulting in death.
Relatives of Bowers' victims are expected to address Judge
Robert Colville during the hearing at the U.S. District Court in
Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. The judge is required to
hand down the sentence voted for by the jury.
During the trial, defense lawyers did not dispute that Bowers
planned and carried out the attack on the synagogue during
Sabbath morning services, in which he combed through the
building shooting everyone he found with semiautomatic rifle and
three pistols.
Bowers' lawyers unsuccessfully argued that he suffered from
life-long mental illness and was delusional and so the jury
should spare him from the death penalty and instead sentence him
to life in prison without release.
The 12 jurors heard testimony from some of the survivors of the
attack and were shown pictures of the carnage and evidence of
Bowers' antisemitism, including multiple posts attacking Jews
made on a far-right website in the months leading up to the
attack.
It is not clear when, if ever, Bowers will be executed: the U.S.
Department of Justice has instated a moratorium on carrying out
federal executions while it reviews the death penalty, which
Biden pledged to abolish when he was running for the presidency.
Bowers will join the 41 other men on federal death row, held in
cells near the U.S. government's execution chamber in Terre
Haute, Indiana.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Daniel
Wallis)
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