Man found guilty in Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11

A jury convicted Robert Bowers on all 63 counts related to a 2018 massacre, the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

a man has been pleaded guilty of a 2018 hate-fueled attack on a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh that killed 11 people.

He mass shooting on October 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life Synagogue, marked the deadliest attack on Jews in United States history.

The verdict announced Monday was all but certain after lawyers for the defendant, trucker Robert Bowers, admitted early in the trial that he attacked and killed worshipers.

Bowers was tried on 63 criminal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death. He was found guilty of all charges.

The prosecutors had previously rejected a deal offered by the defense, which would have seen the 50-year-old Bowers plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

Instead, prosecutors opted to take the case to trial and seek the death penalty. Jurors are set to determine whether Bowers should be sentenced to death at a later date.

Bowers defended anti-Jewish rhetoric and is says to have aimed the synagogue based on his belief that Jews were helping immigrants come to the United States.

Prosecutors said Bowers had posted anti-Jewish content online and yelled: “All Jews must die!” when he stormed into the synagogue brandishing an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon. Most of those killed were elderly.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Mary Hahn described Bowers as “full of Jew hatred.”

“That’s what prompted him to act,” he said.

However, public defender Elisa Long argued that Bowers had been blinded by “nonsensical and irrational” beliefs about immigration and was not necessarily motivated by anti-Jewish hatred or religious disruption.

Long said Bowers adhered to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which says that whites are being replaced by non-white immigrants. She said Bowers placed the nonprofit Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) for Jewish refugees at the center of this conspiracy theory.

The organization’s motto is “Welcome the Outsider. Protect the refugee.

Still, in closing arguments, Long said there was “no justification” for Bowers’ actions and acknowledged the grief of the survivors.

That pain was on full display in the survivors’ statements and in the recordings of 911 calls played during the trial.

Dan Leger, who was shot in the leg during the attack, recounted lying on the ground, waiting for his wound to prove fatal. Finally, seeing someone walk by, he raised his hand.

“Either this is an assistant or the shooter,” he said. “I was dying and I had nothing to lose.”

“This one is alive,” he heard an EMT say.