A 50-year-old truck driver from Baldwin, Pennsylvania, has been found guilty on all 63 counts stemming from the horrific October 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Shouting antisemitic slurs, Robert Bowers shot and killed 11 and wounded seven, including several responding police officers, before surrendering to the police.

BREAKING: The gunman in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in 2018 was found guilty in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history. https://t.co/K24y5PGVRA

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 16, 2023

As RedState’s Thomas LaDuke reported at the time:

Earlier today, a shooting occurred at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood near downtown Pittsburgh just before 10 a.m. EDT. The suspect was taken alive and the authorities have identified him as Robert Bowers, age 46, per multiple media outlets across the country.

As he was firing his weapon, he reportedly yelled many ethnic slurs including ” ALL JEWS MUST DIE.”

Absolutely. Disgusting.

The jury took about five hours, over the course of two days, to find Bowers guilty on all counts. Eleven of the counts are capital offenses, meaning Bowers could now face the death penalty. The sentencing phase will commence on June 26th.

The guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion after Robert Bowers’ own lawyers conceded at the trial’s outset that he attacked and killed worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Jurors must now decide whether the 50-year-old should be sent to death row or sentenced to life in prison without parole as the federal trial shifts to a penalty phase expected to last several weeks.

Bowers was convicted of all 63 criminal counts he faced, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. His attorneys had offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence, but prosecutors refused, opting instead to take the case to trial and pursue the death penalty. Most of the victims’ families expressed support for the decision.

The prosecution presented all of the evidence during the course of the initial phase of the trial, with Bowers’ attorneys electing not to present a defense as to his guilt.

Jurors listened to testimony from survivors, police officers and others in the three-week trial. Prosecutors rested their case June 14. Bowers’ attorneys rested the same day without entering evidence or calling any one to testify.

Now, the focus will turn to the penalty phase, with Bowers’ attorneys attempting to save his life while the prosecution will present testimony from the survivors and family members of the deceased describing the impact the shooting has had on their lives.

Because this is a federal trial, there is an added wrinkle, given the temporary pause placed on executions at the federal level under the Biden administration.

The trial took place three years after President Joe Biden said during his 2020 campaign that he would work to end capital punishment at the federal level and in states that still use it. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, has temporarily paused executions to review policies and procedures. But federal prosecutors continue to vigorously work to uphold already-issued death sentences and, in some cases, to pursue the death penalty at trial for crimes that are eligible, as in Bowers’ case.