ISRAEL IS AT WAR
Help JNS get the facts out
update desk

Judge rules death penalty still on table for alleged Tree of Life shooter

The main subject would-be jurors are being asked about is their position on capital punishment.

The Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a mass shooting took place during Shabbat services on Oct. 27, 2018. Source: Google Maps screenshot.
The Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a mass shooting took place during Shabbat services on Oct. 27, 2018. Source: Google Maps screenshot.

In an 11-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Robert Colville ruled that the defendant’s legal team in the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue mass-shooting trial “fails entirely” to show that the government arbitrarily pursued the death penalty.

Attorneys for Robert Bowers, the defendant who is accused of carrying out the most lethal antisemitic attack in U.S. history, argued that the prosecution was acting arbitrarily by pursuing the death penalty against Bowers but not against those accused of other mass shootings.

So far, the court has interviewed 108 potential jurors since April 24 in a process expected to last weeks. So far, 36 have been chosen as eligible to serve. One of the primary questions for the jurors has been their views on the death penalty.

Reportedly, multiple would-be jurors were excluded for questioning whether capital punishment was moral, and another, who has anti-Jewish beliefs and mocked the synagogue shooting in online forums, was also dismissed.

Israel is at war - Support JNS

JNS is combating the barrage of misinformation with factual reporting. We depend on your support.

Support JNS
Topics
Never miss a thing
Get the best stories faster with JNS breaking news updates