Jury Selection Begins Over Tree Of Life Mass Shooting

April 25, 2023 4:03 am

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection has begun in the federal death penalty trial of a man accused of shooting to death 11 Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Robert G. Bowers, from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, faces 63 counts in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three Jewish congregations were holding Sabbath activities. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville thanked prospective jurors at the start of Monday’s proceedings. If convicted, Bowers could get the death sentence. The 50-year-old offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but federal prosecutors turned him down.