FILE PHOTO: Signs hang on a fence surrounding the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019.
Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo
FILE PHOTO: Signs hang on a fence surrounding the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019.
Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo
(Pittsburgh) — Lawyers for the man accused of shooting to death 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue last year say the case would be over if federal prosecutors had accepted his offer to plead guilty in return for life-without-parole.
Lawyers for Tree of Life shooting defendant Robert Bowers made the statement Tuesday in a response to prosecutors’ proposal to start trial in mid-September 2020.
Bowers’ attorneys told a judge in May that he wanted to plead guilty in return for a life sentence.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh notified the court in August it is pursuing the death penalty against the 47-year-old Bowers for what was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Police said Bowers expressed hatred of Jews during and after the October 2018 rampage.
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