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
Synagogue attack defendant says offer of plea would end case
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The Associated Press
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.
Dave Klug / Associated Press
This courtroom sketch depicts Robert Bowers as he appeared at federal court on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, in Pittsburgh. Bowers is accused of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
(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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