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Defense in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial: ‘There is no culture’ that would support killing of Jews
PITTSBURGH (JTA) — In a bid to keep his client off of death row, a lawyer for the gunman who murdered 11 Jewish worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue claimed there was “no culture” that endorses killing Jews.
That assertion came during closing arguments in the latest phase of the trial of Robert Bowers, who committed the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history on Oct. 27, 2018. Last month, the gunman was found guilty on all 63 counts he faced. The segment of the trial that ended Wednesday concerned whether his crimes and intent merit the death penalty.
The defense has argued that the gunman was schizophrenic, and therefore that his intent does not meet the threshold for a death sentence. On Wednesday, defense attorney Michael Burt devoted a large portion of his 90-minute argument to rebutting the claim that the shooter’s antisemitism was not delusional but rather was a product of his white supremacist subculture. That idea was laid out over three days of testimony by the prosecution’s star witness, Park Dietz, a storied forensic psychiatrist.
In an incredulous tone, Burt questioned the idea “that when someone expresses antisemitism, that is normal ideology.”
“It’s certainly not part of a culture,” he went on. “There is no culture that sanctions that you need to kill people to save humanity from an invasion from Jewish groups — that is delusional thinking, it’s not political discourse, in our view.”
Openly calling for the murder of Jews is considered unacceptable in mainstream political discourse, though the idea that Jews posed a lethal threat to the white race undergirded Nazi German state policy from 1933-1945, culminating in the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
The gunman has professed belief in what is known as “replacement theory,” a white supremacist idea that says Jews are orchestrating an invasion of immigrants of color in order to supplant white Americans. He cited that idea on social media shortly before the attack, and it also animated chants at the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville. Watchdogs say it has become increasingly popular on the far right. and has been echoed by a number of public figures, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The gunman’s persistence in his belief in a Jewish threat, Burt said, is evidence of his mental illness. In recent months, the defendant has told psychiatrists, including those called by the defense, that he continues to ascribe to his antisemitic views, and has expressed pride in the attack he carried out.
“Even in capital custody he can’t keep himself from vocalizing these delusions he has, of the country invaded, that he is a soldier at war, that he has a moral imperative to kill Jews — all these crazy delusions,” he said.
In his cross examination of Dietz on Tuesday, Burt tried to get the expert to acknowledge that antisemitism could be a manifestation of insanity. Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist at UCLA’s medical school, has evaluated defendants including John Hinckley, who attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan; mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer; and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, among many others.
Dietz said the defendant’s antisemitism was commonplace, rooted in theories articulated by previous violent antisemites. The prosecution, in turn, has contended that there is no evidence the defendant is schizophrenic, and says that his antisemitism is of a piece with white supremacist movements.
In his own argument on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan argued, as Dietz had, that the shooter drew his thoughts not from his troubled psyche but from external sources. Olshan started with a reference to Gab, a social media site that welcomes the far right, and where the defendant maintained an active account.
“Gab.com told the defendant he had to act and act now,” he said. “He wasn’t even creative. He didn’t come up with any of this on his own, he went to the menu of available white supremacist ideologies and he picked the one he most agreed with.”
The beliefs that he ascribed to “are well known antisemitic tropes that have been around for centuries,” Olshan said. “The defendant’s beliefs are widely held and shared among his subculture. Not one of his extreme beliefs originated from his own mind.”
The jury retired for the day at 4:30 pm, about an hour after arguments had concluded, and will reconvene on Thursday.
If the jury decides the defendant’s crimes and intent meet the threshold for the death penalty, they will reconvene for the next phase of the trial, in which the defense will raise factors that would mitigate against the death penalty, including the shooter’s life hardships. That phase, which could take weeks, would also include testimony from those affected by the shooting, including relatives of the deceased and members of the tight-knit Pittsburgh Jewish community.
If the jury decides the crimes and intent do not meet the death penalty threshold, the trial will end and Judge Robert Colville will hand down a mandatory life sentence without possibility of release.
Behind the scenes, defense and government lawyers have argued about how much the judge should emphasize that the gunman will receive, at minimum, a mandatory life sentence without parole. Defense lawyers want jurors to understand that their client will never see freedom even if the jury decides to keep him off death row.
Colville twice mentioned that outcome, as did Burt, who also reminded the jury, multiple times, that each juror had to make up his or her own mind. A single juror deciding that the defendant does not meet the death penalty threshold would end the trial with a mandatory life sentence.
Soo Song, an assistant U.S.attorney, opened the proceedings on Wednesday by reviewing the crimes the shooter had committed: The six people whom he shot in the head, the elderly woman he shot in the face, the six elderly victims and two brothers who had a mental disability.
Then she read out the names of the victims. “In the interests of justice, find this defendant eligible for the most severe penalty under the law, a sentence of death,” she said.
“For killing Joyce Fienberg, for killing Richard Gottfried, for killing Rose Mallinger, for killing Jerry Rabinowitz, for killing Cecil Rosenthal, for killing David Rosenthal, for killing Bernice Simon, for killing Sylvan Simon, for killing Daniel Stein, for killing Melvin Wax and for killing Irving Younger,” Song said. “And for killing each of them intentionally.”
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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