Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Trial: Defense Fails To Exhume Father’s Body For DNA

Members of the Jewish faith gather in front of the Tree of Life Synagogue for the Shabbat in 2018 in Pittsburgh. 11 people were killed in a mass shooting at the synagogue. The prosecutors in the case are putting in efforts to argue that a diagnosis of schizophrenia was responsible for the mass shooting. JUSTIN MERRIMAN/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES.

PITTSBURGH — Jurors in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial are considering if the man who killed 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in the fall of 2018 should face the death penalty. On Tuesday, the defense put forward a motion for a court order that the body of Robert Bowers’s father should be exhumed, so investigators could collect DNA in order to confirm or deny biological parentage.

“Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack. A federal jury has to decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without parole,” said WSAZ NewsChannel 3.