The defense was ready to bring an array of medical experts to testify that his client’s brain was structurally incapable of dealing with the real world.
JTA reports that as the gunman in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting stood trial over the past several weeks, the defense made clear that they believed their client had committed the attack, and they declined to present evidence or call witnesses.
Now, after Robert Bowers was convicted on all 63 counts he faced, his lawyers are ready to mount a defense with one goal: to save him from the death penalty.
As in the previous stage of the trial, the testimony over the next few weeks promises to be searingly personal even as the lawyers debate obscure points of law.
But in this case, it’s not just the prosecution that is ready to tell an intimate story about a ruined life. The defense wants jurors to know about the events and disabilities they say shaped the defendant’s life before he killed 11 Jews at prayer on Oct. 27, 2018.
Troy Rivetti, the U.S. attorney who opened the federal government’s arguments on Monday, said he expected the gunman’s lawyers to mount a mental health defense and that the government was ready to rebut it.
Rivetti said the government had already met the thresholds to prove that the defendant’s crimes were eligible for the death penalty earlier in the trial.
Source - JTA/Twitter - Image - Reuters