The U.S. Department of Justice will seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, the man accused of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year.
The department announced the decision Monday in a notice of intent filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, according to online court records. The move comes just a month after Attorney General William Bar said the federal government would soon resume executions after a 16-year pause.
Prosecutors said Bowers was armed with an AR-15 and other weapons when he opened fire inside the synagogue on Oct. 27, killing eight men and three women in what has been described as the worst attack on Jews in the United States. At least six other people were wounded, including four cops who engaged in a shootout with the suspect.
The Justice Department listed several factors for seeking the death penalty in the case, including Bowers' alleged premeditation, lack of remorse and intentional killings "motivated by religious animus."
The court filing states Bowers "targeted men and women participating in Jewish religious worship at the Tree of Life Synagogue," which is described as "one of the largest and oldest urban Jewish populations in the United States, in order to maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes, and instill fear within the local, national and international Jewish communities."
Bowers is awaiting trial on a slew of charges, such as criminal homicide, using a firearm to commit murder, obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs, ethnic intimidation and aggravated assault.
Authorities believe he also posted an anti-Semitic message on social media minutes before the massacre. Bowers, who is white, told officers he wanted to "kill Jews" for "committing genocide to my people," according to law enforcement officials.
Prosecutors said he had a license to carry firearms and legally owned the weapons.
The attorney general announced in July that the U.S. would bring back the death penalty for federal death-row inmates, saying "we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system." Barr also announced that five men convicted of gruesome murders in the late 1990s and early 2000s are now set to die by lethal injection during a six-week period starting Dec. 9.
The five executions would be historic because the U.S. has only executed three inmates since the federal death penalty was restored in 1988.
