A jury is set to deliberate whether to impose the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison without parole on a man who spewed antisemitic hate before fatally shooting 11 worshippers at a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh's Jewish community.
The same jurors who convicted 50-year-old Robert Bowers in June on 63 criminal counts listened to closing arguments Monday in the penalty phase of his federal trial, held nearly five years after the truck driver from suburban Baldwin perpetrated the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
The extent to which mental illness and Bowers' difficult childhood played a role in the massacre dominated the lawyers' arguments for and against capital punishment. The jury is expected to get the case and begin deliberations on Tuesday.
Speaking for the government, U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan said Bowers was clearly motivated by religious hatred when he entered the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, shooting everyone he could find.
The gunman raved incessantly on social media about his hatred of Jewish people -- using a slur for Jewish people some 400 times on a platform favoured by the far right -- and remains proud that he killed Jews, the prosecutor reminded jurors.
"Do not be numb to it. Remember what it means. This defendant targeted people solely because of the faith that they chose," Olshan said.
He added: "This is a case that calls for the most severe punishment under the law: the death penalty."
Bowers' lead defence attorney, Judy Clarke, acknowledged the horror of his crimes but urged jurors to opt for mercy and a life sentence.
Bowers' attorneys have argued that he has schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations, and that Bowers attacked the synagogue out of a delusional belief that Jews were helping to bring about a genocide of white people by coming to the aid of refugees and immigrants. On Monday, Clarke recounted Bowers' history of psychiatric hospitalizations, including an extended stay in a residential juvenile mental health program.
The defence also presented evidence of Bowers' difficult childhood.
"What has happened cannot be undone. We can't rewind the clock and make it that this senseless crime never happened. All we can do is make the right decision going forward. We are asking you to make the right decision, and that is life," Clarke said in her closing argument.
A life sentence would mean that "prison is where Mr. Bowers will die in obscurity, not as a hero and not as a martyr," she said.
Olshan, the prosecutor, disputed the defence experts' diagnosis of schizophrenia, asserting that Bowers was not suffering psychosis but had chosen to believe white supremacist rhetoric. And while acknowledging that Bowers was a depressed, neglected child, Olshan downplayed the significance of it, noting that Bowers had held jobs, paid bills, and was an otherwise functioning adult.
"He was not a child, he was a grown man. He was responsible for his actions, not his family and things that happened decades earlier. He was, he is responsible for his actions," Olshan said.
Clarke retorted that "childhood matters."
"It defies reality to say he got better, he's fine, he's just an evil guy. What it does is reflects a complete misunderstanding of serious mental illness," she said.
In order to impose death, jurors must find that aggravating circumstances, which make the crime especially heinous, outweigh mitigating factors that could be seen as diminishing his culpability. Those aggravating circumstances could include the vulnerability of Bowers' elderly and disabled victims and his targeting of Jewish people.
Olshan played a composite of 911 calls made from inside the synagogue, including audio of people being shot and a survivor's horrified screams.
He said Bowers had taken "11 people, 11 full lives, 11 people who loved their families, 11 people who loved their friends, 11 people who were loved. ... How do you measure the impact of all of that loss?"
The prosecutor spoke about 75-year-old Joyce Fienberg's care for her family and 65-year-old Richard Gottfried's devotion to his faith. He said Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, had the ethos of a country doctor: "He loved delivering babies but he never delivered judgment." David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59, intellectually disabled brothers, "loved life," Olshan said. "But maybe more than anything, they loved Tree of Life."
The other deceased victims were Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; Dan Stein, 71; Melvin Wax, 87; and Irving Younger, 69.
The attack also wounded seven people, including five responding police officers. Bowers was shot three times before surrendering when he ran out of ammunition.
------
Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania.
This week, Avery Haines follows migrants' harrowing journeys across the Darien Gap. Strict new rules to stem the flood of migrants through the notorious stretch of dense jungle appear to be working, but advocates fear it could backfire.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is asking members of the United Nations to counter growing political polarization.
It had been 48 hours since the winds and rains from Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina and Sam Perkins still had not heard from his parents.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford released a statement Monday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, acknowledging what they described as the 'painful legacy' of the residential school system.
Dikembe Mutombo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game, died Monday after a battle with brain cancer, the league announced. He was 58.
If you're struggling to find a name for your baby, you may find some inspiration in a new list of popular names.
A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
The union representing longshore workers at the Port of Montreal began a three-day strike at two terminals.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Donald Trump over crowd sizes, his refusal to debate again and his privileged background on Sunday as she hauled in campaign cash in California and held a raucous rally at the same Nevada venue where the Republican nominee had appeared just two weeks ago.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford released a statement Monday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, acknowledging what they described as the 'painful legacy' of the residential school system.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony is planned in Ottawa this afternoon to honour the survivors of Canada's residential school system and the children who never returned home.
Bullet casings recovered from the scene of a B.C. woman’s murder 30 years ago will be retested for DNA after the province’s highest court ruled it is “in the interests of justice†to do so in support of an ongoing appeal.
A child was sent to hospital after being attacked by a coyote in northwest Calgary.
A man who authorities say spent 12 hours camped outside Donald Trump's golf course before Secret Service spotted him with a rifle pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges including attempted assassination.
Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other and the opposing nominees who top the major-party tickets.
Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in his first public address since Israel assassinated the group's chief last week, said the movement is ready to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Donald Trump over crowd sizes, his refusal to debate again and his privileged background on Sunday as she hauled in campaign cash in California and held a raucous rally at the same Nevada venue where the Republican nominee had appeared just two weeks ago.
Republicans on Sunday sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump's latest insults of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris during a rambling weekend rally in Wisconsin in which he called her 'mentally disabled.'
It had been 48 hours since the winds and rains from Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina and Sam Perkins still had not heard from his parents.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is asking members of the United Nations to counter growing political polarization.
The Liberal government is announcing more details on its existing strategy and funding to fight hate crimes.
Migrant groups are pushing the federal government to reverse its cap on international study permits and tightening post-graduate work permit qualifications, claiming it will leave many students 'in limbo.'
A man from Alberta has been at the Medipal International Hospital in Kampala, Uganda for over two months with a hefty medical bill. He says he can’t leave until it’s been paid for.
More than 550 symptomatic people responded to an online questionnaire about a gastrointestinal illness at a Prince Edward Island shellfish festival last weekend.
A partial masking mandate has returned to Nova Scotia hospitals and provincially run healthcare facilities for visitors and healthcare workers.
The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule.
The space rock — 2024 PT5 — was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.
Canadian innovators and technical leaders gathered in Ottawa Thursday to demonstrate the latest cutting-edge technology.
Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Oasis shocked fans by announcing a reunion tour last month, ending a 15-year hiatus and, presumably, the long-held feud between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. But those were only U.K. dates. On Monday, the band shared that they're planning on heading to North America in 2025, too.
John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably played the gruff but lovable police detective John Taggart in the 'Beverly Hills Cop' films, has died. He was 76.
The union representing longshore workers at the Port of Montreal began a three-day strike at two terminals.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resetting of the economy that followed it made hourly workers more aware of their value. Some experts think employers should expect to field demands for flexible hours and other workplace incentives even as the labor market weakens.
Ask Meta Platforms Inc.'s head of artificial intelligence research how the technology could be made safer and she takes inspiration from an unlikely place: the grocery store.
Many people consider eating less meat, be it for health, environmental or animal-welfare reasons. (Livestock accounts for nearly half of agricultural emissions fueling climate change.) But they sometimes hesitate because they are concerned about how they would replace all that lost protein.
While libraries might be stereotyped by some as boring or outdated, they’ve become popular digital destinations for young viewers on TikTok.
Matt Perrault has shipped animals in and out of Canada on behalf of owners for more than two decades, handling creatures ranging from birds to bearded dragons, rabbits and ferrets.
Dikembe Mutombo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game, died Monday after a battle with brain cancer, the league announced. He was 58.
When manager Mark Kotsay removed his Oakland jersey for the final time Sunday, it was bound for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
South Korea's Si Woo Kim missed a birdie putt on No. 18 and lost his match to Keegan Bradley as the United States clinched another win over the International team at the Presidents Cup.
A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.
A U.S. driver somehow squeezed her vehicle through a parkade hallway at a Metro Vancouver casino Thursday, before getting stuck at an elevator bank.
More than 12,000 vehicles in Canada are included in two separate recalls by Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda.
A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.
When a group of B.C. filmmakers set out on a small fishing boat near Powell River last week, they hoped to capture some video for a documentary on humpback whales. What happened next blew their minds.
A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.
Sarah McLachlan is returning to her hometown of Halifax in November.
Wayne MacKay is still playing basketball twice at Mount Allison University at 87 years old.
A man from a small rural Alberta town is making music that makes people laugh.
An Indigenous artist has a buyer-beware warning ahead of Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Police are looking to the public for help after thieves broke into a Lethbridge ice creamery, stealing from the store.
An ordinary day on the job delivering mail in East Elmwood quickly turned dramatic for Canada Post letter carrier Jared Plourde. A woman on his route was calling out in distress.
Seas of orange shirts have come to represent a growing awareness of Canada's history of oppressing Indigenous Peoples – but that awareness must translate into more "substantive changes" from the government, according to a B.C. chief.
This Monday marks Canada's 4th annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Here are some of the events honouring the occasion in Metro Vancouver.
British Columbia's election campaign is entering its second week with each party's team of candidates in place and the leaders looking ahead to the upcoming televised debate.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford released a statement Monday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, acknowledging what they described as the 'painful legacy' of the residential school system.
Halton police say they have identified 51 motorcycles that have been riding around the GTA without plates and have laid a number of charges following an investigation targeting unplated motorcycles and dangerous drivers.
One person is dead following a shooting in Toronto’s Weston neighbourhood Monday morning.
The Calgary police homicide unit is investigating after two people were found dead in a home in the community of Penbrooke Meadows.
Calgarians gathered for a rally on Sunday in support of the people of Lebanon as conflict between Israel and Hezbollah continues to escalate in the region.
A child was sent to hospital after being attacked by a coyote in northwest Calgary.
A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony is planned in Ottawa this afternoon to honour the survivors of Canada's residential school system and the children who never returned home.
The federal holiday on Sept. 30 will bring some schedule changes in Ottawa as Canada marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The family of Kendyl Smith-Trimm, a young girl who bravely battled cancer, has raised a staggering $66,500 in her memory for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
The union representing longshore workers at the Port of Montreal began a three-day strike at two terminals.
The number of buildings located in flood-prone areas has doubled in Greater Montreal, according to maps posted online on Monday by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) council.
Police were busier during the back-to-school season this year as they handed out 8,571 tickets to drivers for traffic violations, an increase of more than 2,000 tickets issued last year.
Mounties say one person is dead in the aftermath of a collision involving two vehicles south of Calmar on Sunday.
Kim Ruether lifted her son's eyelid and saw his still, dilated pupil staring at the ceiling as he lay on a stretcher in a northwestern Alberta hospital hallway a decade ago. She says she didn't need a doctor to tell her the boy was dead.
Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
This Monday, Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal statutory holiday and day of remembrance for the Indigenous children who never came home from Canadian residential schools, as well as those who survived them.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
Residents in Tadoule Lake, Man., and Churchill can expect to see heavy rain trickle in Sunday afternoon, lingering until Monday evening.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen touched down in Winnipeg this week, ahead of his lunar mission set to launch in a year’s time.
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews believe a candle caused a major house fire in the city’s William Whyte neighbourhood Sunday afternoon.
The Regina Public Library (RPL) downtown hosted an architectural tour on Sunday, for folks looking to learn more about the building's history.
In front of the Saskatchewan Legislative building, law enforcement officers and members of the public gathered to pay tribute to peace officers who died in the line of duty.
A man is in custody after allegedly robbing a business in McLean, Sask. with an edged weapon on Saturday.
People in Guelph may notice a new addition at the entrance to Franchetto Park in Guelph.
A young motorcyclist has been taken to an out-of-region hospital after a single vehicle crash in Woolwich Township.
A grassroots organization is calling on the provincial government to reopen the Ontario Science Centre after it was abruptly closed in June following the discovery of structural issues in the building.
The fourth and final walk in memory of Megan Gallagher drew around one hundred people in Saskatoon on Sunday.
RCMP are seeking tips after a church on Main Street in Loon Lake burned to the ground.
Saskatoon Police Service has arrested a suspect in connection with two separate stabbing incidents that occurred earlier this month.
This Monday, Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal statutory holiday and day of remembrance for the Indigenous children who never came home from Canadian residential schools, as well as those who survived them.
A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
If you're struggling to find a name for your baby, you may find some inspiration in a new list of popular names.
The City of London is informing drivers about temporary road restrictions on Wellington Street as part of the Downtown Loop Phase 3 finishing work and surface paving.
The very first -20 degree Celsius reading of the year has been recorded in Canada’s arctic – a good reminder that summer is officially behind us.
A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
OPP officers arrested a suspect while he was in the middle of a possible theft Sunday morning in Wasaga Beach.
A Barrie police officer suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries while arresting a suspect Sunday afternoon.
The City of Windsor has unveiled plans for the “Park in Perfect Harmony†initiative in the downtown core.
Canadian country-rock band Blue Rodeo is booked to return to Caesars Windsor this winter.
Seas of orange shirts have come to represent a growing awareness of Canada's history of oppressing Indigenous Peoples – but that awareness must translate into more "substantive changes" from the government, according to a B.C. chief.
British Columbia's election campaign is entering its second week with each party's team of candidates in place and the leaders looking ahead to the upcoming televised debate.
Bullet casings recovered from the scene of a B.C. woman’s murder 30 years ago will be retested for DNA after the province’s highest court ruled it is “in the interests of justice†to do so in support of an ongoing appeal.
Fire crews in Vernon, B.C., responded to a large house fire early Saturday morning.
A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
The sentencing for three men convicted of helping lead and coordinate the COVID-19 protest blockade at Coutts, Alta., in 2022 has been delayed.
A 10-year-old boy from Lethbridge is being praised as a hero after a routine summer outing at the pool nearly turned tragic for his friend.
A man and woman have been charged after a Lethbridge ice creamery was broken into earlier this week. Staff arrived at Cookie Crimes, in the 300 block of Sixth Street South, just before 5:30 a.m. on Monday to discover the front window broken.
Overnight on Thursday as the community of Elliot Lake was resting to prepare for the upcoming Kraft Hockeyville celebrations, when vandals struck a building that has been top of mind for the northern Ontario city for more than a year.
Ontario Provincial Police remind the public that ‘a case is never closed until it is solved,’ while highlighting the force's continued investigation of the 1996 disappearance of Melanie Ethier.
Sault residents may notice some commotion on the Algoma University campus over the next two weeks as a team conducts an archaeological search.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at Â鶹´«Ã½. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.
