PITTSBURGH — Federal jurors reached a verdict Wednesday in the sentencing of Robert Gregory Bowers, who was convicted after killing 11 worshippers at a synagogue nearly five years ago in the most heinous antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
Jurors will need to be unanimous to impose the death penalty or else the gunman will receive life without the possibility of parole.
The panel will now deliver its verdict to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Colville, who is now bound to impose their decision against the gunman.
Even if jurors in Pittsburgh rule in favor of death, it could take years before the gunman is executed in light of the Department of Justice’s moratorium on capital punishment.
Executions are relatively rare in the federal system. Just 50 have been carried out since 1927, the last one on Jan. 16, 2021, when triple murderer Dustin John Higgs died by lethal injection at U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, a maximum security federal prison in Indiana.
This same jury last month found the shooter guilty on 63 criminal counts stemming from the Oct. 27, 2018, attack in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Carolina Gonzalez reported from Pittsburgh and David K. Li from New York City.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
