Lawyers for the man accused of shooting to death 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue last year say in a filing that 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 yesterday in a response to prosecutors’ proposal to start trial in mid-September 2020.
Driver’s License photo of Pittsburgh synagogue massacre suspect Robert Bowers. (Pennsylvania DOT)
“Against the hazards of a September-October 2020 trial, the government invokes the rights of crimes victims to be free from unreasonable delay,” Bowers’ lawyers said. “The court’s view of this invocation of rights should be informed by the fact that this case would already be over — and interests in a speedy resolution vindicated — had the government accepted the defendant’s offer to plead guilty as charged and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.”
Bowers’ attorneys told a judge in May that he wanted to plead guilty in return for a life sentence.
The US attorney’s office in Pittsburgh notified the court in August it is pursuing the death penalty against Bowers, 47, for what was the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.
Police say Bowers expressed hatred of Jews during and after the October 2018 rampage.
— AP
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