Jury Begins Deliberations in Tree of Life Synagogue Massacre Trial

The jury in the trial of the gunman accused of carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh began deliberations Thursday after the end of closing arguments and 11 days of harrowing witness testimony.

Robert Bowers, 50, faces 63 separate federal charges in relation to the attack that killed 11 people and injured six others. 22 of those charges potentially carry the death penalty. 

While Bowers pleaded not guilty, his attorneys did not dispute his responsibility for the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history, and did not call witnesses to testify in his defense. In an effort to prevent Bowers from receiving the death penalty, the defense instead argued that he was not motivated by antisemitism per se, but rather by hatred for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society as part of a conspiracy theory that Jews are carrying out genocide on white Americans through immigration.

Prosecutor Soo C. Song in her opening argument quoted Bowers statement to officers at the scene after he was apprehended.

“Those people are committing genocide on my people and I just want to kill Jews,” Bowers said. Bowers also posted on social media before the attack, “Jews are a cancer on the planet, Jews are evil creatures, Jews are pedophiles.”

Prosecutors on Thursday told the jury in their closing argument that Bowers was intent on killing Jews.

“You know now how he hunted his victims throughout the synagogue on multiple floors through multiple rooms,” prosecutor Mary Hahn said. “You know how he murdered congregants still wrapped in their prayer shawls and clutching their prayer books…We ask that you hold this defendant accountable for everything he did to the worshippers who survived and told you what happened that day, and hold him accountable for all those who could not tell you what happened that day.”

Some of the first evidence heard in the trial was a 911 recording from Bernice Simon, an 84-year-old worshipper at Tree of Life.

“Tree of Life, we’re being attacked … We’re being attacked!” Simon said as noise of the massacre could be heard in the background of the recording. “My husband’s shot, oh dear God, my husband’s bleeding, he’s shot in the back….I’m scared to death.”

Bernice and her husband Sylvan, 86, who were married at Tree of Life more than 60 years before the shooting, were both killed in the attack.

If the jury finds Bowers guilty of any of the capital charges, the trial will move to a separate penalty phase where they will hear additional evidence and decide whether to sentence him to death.

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