Capital punishment violates fifth and eighth amendments, lawyers for Robert Bowers, charged with killing 11 last year, say in filings

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Lawyers for the suspect in the synagogue shooting that killed 11 people in Pittsburgh have challenged his potential death sentence as unconstitutional.

Lawyers for Robert Bowers argued in court papers filed this week that capital punishment violates the fifth amendment’s due process clause and the eighth amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

They also said the practice of carrying out federal executions in state prisons violates a 10th amendment protection that says states can’t be made to enforce federal laws, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday.

The defense lawyer Judy Clarke has made similar arguments in other high-profile capital cases. Her clients have included the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is appealing his 2015 death sentence, and the “Unabomber”, Ted Kaczynski, who entered a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.

In court filings, Clarke said that she has tried to negotiate a life sentence for Bowers but that prosecutors have rebuffed her.

Bowers is charged with killing 11 congregants during a Shabbat service at the Tree of Life synagogue on 27 October 2018, and injuring six others, including four police officers.

He has pleaded not guilty to 63 federal counts, 22 of which carry the death penalty. His defense team also includes public defenders Michael Novara and Elisa Long.

No trial date has been set.