Legal efforts have failed to void the trial that resulted in the death penalty for the perpetrator of the most deadly antisemitic attack in the United States.
Judge Robert J. Colville released a 26-page statement on May 17 rejecting the arguments for a mistrial made by the attorneys of Robert Bowers, the lone gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.
“It is beyond question that the jury was presented with sufficient evidence” to know that Bowers had targeted his victims because of their religion, he wrote. “[Bowers] walked into a Jewish place of worship on a day of worship, knowing that service would be held that day, and opened fire on each and every Jewish worshipper he came across.”
Colville wrote: “Any argument that no rational juror could find the specific intent required by [law] on the evidence presented in this case is simply, and entirely, baseless.”
Bowers’s lawyers also attacked the constitutionality of hate crime charges. “It is no mystery that the issue of [federal hate crime laws’] constitutionality will likely be raised on appeal,” Colville wrote before dismissing the effort, declaring that “[the] defendant has not advanced any argument.”
The next step in the appeal process will be to take the matter to the Third Circuit Court.
