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Jury selection begins over 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack

This is the Federal Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh on Monday April 24, 2023. The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers accused in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin with jury selection beginning April 24, 2023, at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh, a federal judge has ruled. Bowers, a Baldwin resident who has pleaded not guilty, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the shootings. He faces more than 60 federal charges stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
This is the Federal Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh on Monday April 24, 2023. The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers accused in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin with jury selection beginning April 24, 2023, at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh, a federal judge has ruled. Bowers, a Baldwin resident who has pleaded not guilty, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the shootings. He faces more than 60 federal charges stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) This is the Federal Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh on Monday April 24, 2023. The long-delayed capital murder trial of Robert Bowers accused in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will begin with jury selection beginning April 24, 2023, at the Federal Courthouse in Pittsburgh, a federal judge has ruled. Bowers, a Baldwin resident who has pleaded not guilty, could be sentenced to death if convicted of the shootings. He faces more than 60 federal charges stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

By PETER SMITH and MARK SCOLFORO / Associated Press 5 min read


PITTSBURGH (AP) — Prospective jurors said Monday that if they were to convict a man of killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, they would be capable of sentencing him to die.

Jury selection got underway in the trial of 50-year-old Robert G. Bowers, who faces 63 counts in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three Jewish congregations were holding Sabbath activities. The charges include 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death.

Bowers, a truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, could get the death sentence if convicted. He offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but federal prosecutors turned him down even though Joe Biden pledged while campaigning for president three years ago that, if elected, he would work to end the federal death penalty. Bowers’ lawyers also recently said he has schizophrenia and structural and functional brain impairments.

It was quiet outside the courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh for the start of the trial. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville began proceedings by thanking prospective jurors for their service, summarizing the case and describing the trial’s phases. Bowers sat with his attorneys and looked at documents as the judge spoke.