The trial of the alleged perpetrator of a 2018 attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest against Jews in US history and for which he faces the death penalty, opened Tuesday in full outbreak of anti-Semitic acts in this country.
Jury selection for the federal court in Pennsylvania (northeast) began on April 24 for a period of four weeks and the trial really started on Tuesday to try Robert Bowers, 50, prosecuted on 63 counts.
The white trucker who initially pleaded "not guilty" -- before his lawyers unsuccessfully offered to plead "guilty" in exchange for a guarantee that he would not be sentenced to death -- is charged with, among other things, perpetrating 11 murders aggravated by the qualification of anti-Semitic act.
"The extent of the accused's malice and hatred can be seen in the broken bodies" of the victims, thundered Assistant Federal Prosecutor Soo C. Song in her first speech, according to the American judicial press.
On October 27, 2018, Bowers stormed into Pittsburgh's "Tree of Life" synagogue, armed with three pistols and a semi-automatic assault rifle.
Shouting "all Jews must die," he opened fire and killed 11 people, including a 97-year-old worshiper, in the midst of Shabbat ceremonies in a historic Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh, committing the bloodiest attack on Jews in UNITED STATES.
Before that, he had posted racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages on a far-right social network.
Then-President Republican Donald Trump had sought the death penalty for Robert Bowers, a request followed by the Justice Department and upheld after Democratic President Joe Biden took office on January 20, 2021.
But while candidate Biden had pledged in 2020 to abolish the death penalty at the national level, this trial revives in the United States the debates around this supreme punishment still practiced in many American states.
As early as 2019, the Pittsburgh federal prosecutor had indicated that he would seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, citing his "lack of remorse" and "his hatred and contempt" for Jews.
His lawyer Judy Clarke immediately admitted that her client was indeed the man who had shot Jews. "There is no point in looking for meaning in a senseless act," she defended, seeking above all to save Bowers' life rather than to plead his innocence.
The trial, which is expected to last until July, takes place amid a surge in racist and anti-Semitic acts in the United States, which have reached the highest level in 30 years, according to statistics from the federal police , the FBI, quoted in April by the Washington Post.
According to the American organization for the fight against anti-Semitism Anti Defamation League, the country had experienced a record number of 2,717 anti-Semitic acts in 2021 (assaults, verbal attacks, material damage, etc.), an increase of 34% on a year.
In 2022, this association counted 3,697 anti-Semitic acts (36% over one year), unheard of since 1979, according to the Washington Post.
05/30/2023 20:44:07 - New York (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
