New York, June 16 (AFP/APP): A truck driver was convicted on Friday of massacring 11 Jewish worshippers five years ago in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history.
Robert Bowers methodically tracked down his victims at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, shooting many multiple times from close range as he yelled “All Jews must die!”
The 50-year-old American was found guilty of all 63 charges leveled against him, the federal prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP, including hate crimes resulting in murder and attempted murder.
A jury will now decide whether Bowers should be executed for the October 27, 2018 mass shooting that compounded fears of a resurgence of far-right extremists and neo-Nazis across the United States.
Bowers, who had an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle and three Glock handguns, carried out the slayings during Shabbat — the Jewish day of rest. He had expressed strong anti-Semitic views online.
He was arrested at the scene of the attack, which left several police officers and two additional worshippers with non-fatal wounds.
Donald Trump, then the US president, called for Bowers to receive the death penalty, which federal prosecutors formally requested in August 2019.
The Department of Justice has not carried out any federal executions since President Joe Biden came to power in January 2021, however.
A second phase of the trial now begins, with the jury due to hear arguments about whether Bowers should receive a death sentence.
– ‘Justice’ –
His defense team, which argues that he suffers from schizophrenia, offered a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison, which was rejected by the prosecution.
Bowers did not dispute that he had shot the congregants, making Friday’s verdict a foregone conclusion, but he argued that he had not been motivated by a hatred of Jewish people.
His lawyers said he had a “misguided intent” of wanting to stop one of the Jewish organizations that were using the synagogue from helping immigrants settle in the United States.
The trial opened in late April and came amid a rising number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In 2022, the US-based Jewish group registered 3,697 acts of harassment, vandalism and assault, a 36 percent increase over the prior year and the highest since it began keeping records in 1979.
Jewish groups hailed the verdict.
“Antisemites feed off impunity, which is why courtroom results like these are so critical,” said the watchdog StopAntisemitism, which was founded in 2018 in response to increasing anti-Semitism in the United States.
The American Jewish Committee said that “justice was served.”
“While it cannot erase the pain, we hope it brings some comfort to the families and friends of the victims,” it said in a statement.
The United States is home to around six million Jewish people, according to a Pew Research Center study published in May 2021.
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