The Trial of Robert Bowers
Earlier this summer Pitt Osher offered a course about the trial of Robert Bowers, who murdered eleven people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018. That course ended mid-way through the trial. The trial has now concluded, and the Court has sentenced Robert Bowers to death. Tom Allen, the instructor for the course earlier this summer, attended much of the Bowers trial. In this follow-up lecture, Tom will discuss the legal framework that governs federal death penalty trials, the evidence presented by the Prosecutors and the Defense within this framework, and how the jury’s decision to impose the death penalty was guided by this framework. Tom will also share some of his personal observations about this intensely emotional, dramatic and historic trial.
Tom Allen, JD, is a lawyer who practiced with a large global law firm (Reed Smith LLP) for over 40 years before his retirement from the firm at the end of 2021. Early in his career, Tom was a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department. Tom has appeared in courts throughout the United States. Tom obtained a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.