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April 24 (UPI) -- Jury selection will begin Monday in the federal trial of Robert Bowers, the man accused of walking into a Jewish synagogue in 2018 and killing 11 worshippers in what is considered the deadliest mass attack on Jewish people on U.S. soil. About 1,500 people from 24 counties throughout Western Pennsylvania have received summons in the high-profile case with the jury selection progress expected to take several weeks with arguments in the trial beginning in May.
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Bowers, 50, faces 63 charges in the case including federal hate crimes and firearms offenses for the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and federal prosecutors are seeking to have him sentenced to the death penalty.
Bowers' attorneys, however, say the former truck driver suffers from schizophrenia and should be given life in prison.
Once 12 jurors and alternates are selected, the trial will move forward with to the hearing and evidence phase and if found guilty, the same jury will determine punishment.
At the time of the shooting, the synagogue was the home of three different congregations using different areas of the building. All three congregations were holding services and suffered deaths in the shooting.
Bowers' online presence is expected to be highlighted in the trial, where prosecutors will charge that he frequented right-wing forums and reposted prominent White supremacists while supplying his own negative comments about immigrants and Jews.
Bowers' attorneys are expected to argue that their client suffers from "major mental illness" after suffering through a history of "significant events" in his life. They are expected to rely on tests to show that he suffers from "structural and functional brain impairments."
