The federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase. At the end of the phase, which started this week, jurors will decide if Robert Bowers should be put to death for the 2018 attack. Outcomes are notoriously unpredictable because it takes just one holdout juror to prevent the unanimity required for a death sentence. If they can’t agree unanimously that he should be executed, Bowers would automatically receive a life sentence. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bowers' actions were so depraved and that his character is so irredeemable that the death sentence is warranted.
