Jurors in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial will continue to consider potential penalties for convicted gunman Robert Bowers Wednesday after reaching no decision during their first day of deliberations Tuesday.
The jury must decide whether to sentence defendant Robert Bowers to death or life in prison without the possibility of release. Deliberations will resume at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The jury deliberated from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday before breaking for the day. During their deliberations, the jury asked the judge two questions. In the morning, the jury asked to look at the weapons used in the crimes.
There was a little drama as jury deliberations began in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial to determine whether the shooter deserves the death penalty or life in prison.
— Oliver Morrison (@ORMorrison) August 1, 2023
It started when the jury asked, after deliberating for only 10 - 15 minutes, to see the weapons again
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Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to bring the guns into the courtroom, where jurors were allowed to look at them but not to touch them. But defense lawyers objected when they saw that a U.S. Marshal who was guarding the weapons was talking to jury members.
U.S. District Judge Robert Colville instructed two U.S. Marshals not to speak to the jury. Joseph Klaus, one of the marshals, testified under oath that jurors asked him three questions, to which he responded before Colville gave his instruction. Jurors asked where the three handguns were carried (Klaus did not know), how to load a shotgun (from the bottom or the side) and if the ammunition magazine stored in the box with the AR-15 belonged to the gun (it did).
Defense lawyers moved for a mistrial, citing the exchange between the marshal and the jury and noting that it introduced improper evidence. Colville denied the motion and instead told the jury to disregard what the marshal told them.
In the afternoon, jurors asked to look at a chart detailing the mental health history of Bowers’ family. The court told the jury where they could find the chart in the evidence they received.
The issue of Bowers’ family’s neurological history is first raised in the defense’s mitigating factor No. 57, listed on the jury’s sentencing verdict form. It lists a total of 115 mitigating factors.
Jurors must weigh the aggravating factors that make the crime serious enough to warrant the death penalty and the mitigating factors that defense lawyers argue should lessen the severity of his punishment.
If the jury unanimously finds that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors on just one of the capital counts, Bowers would be sentenced to death. If a single jury member votes for life in prison, Bowers would be spared the death penalty.
