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justice lead, guilty verdicts today in the trial over the deadliest anti-semitic attack in u.s. history. the gunman who killed 11 people at pittsburgh's tree of life synagogue in october of 2018 was convicted of all 63 charges he faced. cnn's danny freeman is at the courthouse in pittsburgh. danny, prosecutors will now ask the jury to impose the death penalty? >> reporter: that is right, alex. this same jury, in just a matter of weeks will be asked to decide whether or not 50-year-old robert barris will be sentenced to life in prison or be executed. but before i get to that. i want to just illustrate what happened today. as you said, 63 federal charges, found guilty of all of them including the 22 capital offenses that we've been talking about so much in this particular case. the primary capital offenses
want to run through some of the things we heard today in closing arguments from both the prosecution and the defense. first prosecution, really tried to paint a contrasting picture earlier this morning of an otherwise peaceful day in a synagogue on a rainy saturday morning, october of 2018 with then the moment that rob bowers, the defendant, quoting from the prosecution, turned a sacred house of worship into a hunting ground. the prosecution further said bowers killed jewish people just because they were jewish. prosecution this morning continued to show some of the most graphic horrible images of the victims mp the synagogue shooting. they were, again, visceral, brutal. showed, played some 911 calls we've heard throughout the past two and a half week of this trial as well and actually had a view this time in the courthouse of family members and some victims who survived this attack as well. all the while sat still, very intently listening to the prosecution. then took a lunch break. then this afternoon the defense
process sense comparing people how they have been treated to the way others have been treated. that's not what aboutism. that is what we do in the law. that's what it's about. listening to your conversation about the hunter biden situation, one thing occurred to me. everybody should have in mind, october of 2023. hunter biden made a false statement in a federal gun form in october of 2018. you want to talk about like all of these other cases? it would take a competent prosecutor about five days, not five years, five days to put that case together. they have had it for five years. the statute of limitations runs in october. that's what's going on here. >> martha: this is a simple case, the trump case. the other one should have been done in five weeks. i just want to mention that the president as of a few minutes ago left the courtroom. the motorcade is leaving the courthouse in about three minutes. that should be about now.
but one of the documents that caught my attention was from october of 2018, peter, and it said regarding communications with the leader of a foreign country. it's believed the president wanted to hang on to his communications with kim jong-un, and secret, no foreign sharing, document dated october 21, 2018, concerning communications with a leader of a foreign country. i'm wondering if that was one of the letters from kim jong-un, peter. >> it's entirely possible. he has talked a lot about that as he has restarted his white house campaign, and i'm seeing these photos in color for the first time on screen that are up, and it is extraordinary to think about this moment in time where you've got the two front runners, one of them had classified material next to a corvette, and the other one has classified material next to the toilet. and in a shower. and it's just an extraordinary moment to look -- there is the toilet and the shower curtain,
>> hi everyone, thank you for tuning into this hour where we bring you tomorrow's news tonight. we have our great lineup of reporters here with me tonight, we have brynn, harry enten, omar jimenez, and elena train. also joining us from pittsburgh tonight, danny freeman. so the death penalty trial of the accused mass shooter in the pittsburgh synagogue massacre began today. 50 year old robert bowers is accused of killing 11 worshippers at the synagogue in october of 2018. danny freeman as the centers in pittsburgh covering this trial, brynn is following the rise in antisemitism across the country. we will get to that in a moment. danny we start with you. tell us how prosecutors laid out a case during the first day today? >> well, alison, basically prosecutors tried to establish one primary, thing not just that robert bowers was the person who fired indiscriminately into the synagogue killing 11 jewish
trial began yesterday. and now we've seen prosecutors as they lay out their case in these opening remarks. walk us through it. >> that's right, poppy. by the way, you mentioned exactly how emotional and challenging yesterday was in the courtroom. some of the 911 calls. we'll get to that in a second. what the prosecution tried to do yesterday is not only establish that robert bowers was the one who killed 11 worshippers in pittsburgh in that synagogue on that day in october of 2018, but also that he did it specifically because those worshippers who jewish and did so in a horrific fashion. yesterday we really learned new details about how violent and just how intentional that shooting was. prosecutors said that robert bowers went through the synagogue room by room methodically hunting jewish worshippers. now in the end of that shooting, s.w.a.t. team from pittsburgh got into a shootout with robert bowers. he eventually surrendered.
last roughly six weeks, and right now we are hearing from one of the survivors of the shooting from back in october of 2018, but this all comes on the heels of a very harrowing and difficult and emotional day yesterday as some of the family members had to hear these chilling details from that mass shooting. you mentioned those 911 calls that were played out. there was one call that was initially made by one of the victims, she called saying that her husband was bleeding out right next to her, and shortly after that the phone dies. you don't hear anything, but it was quickly followed by gunfire and screams and ultimately we found out that she died along with her husband in the same synagogue that she got married in 60 years ago. another chilling 911 call that we heard from was the rabbi of tree of life, and he survived the shooting but he was hiding
this morning we had not seen that paints a picture of what actually happened but first i want to get emotional testimony we heard. we heard from carol black. carol black is the sister of richard godfried. richard was one of the victims killed in this shooting back in october of 2018. carol black was also a survivor of the shooting. she described today she was in the synagogue. shots started to ring out. she and three other congregation members ran to a closet and bunkered inside of the closet she said on the stand today. one of the other members who was hiding with her in that closet was half in the closet and half exposed and the shooter came and killed that congregant half exposed. carol talked about how terrible that was that the shooter was so close to all of them hiding out
jewish community in the united states. cnn's danny freeman is live in pittsburgh for us watching the trial proceedings. danny, today jurors heard from one witness who survived the incident. what did she share with them? >> reporter: yeah, in fact actually today has been an incredible day because we've heard from now three and on the fourth person who actually survived that tree of life synagogue, but that one witness that you're talking about was particularly poignant because not only did carol black survive this shooting and live to tell about what happened in that 17 g synagogue, her brother did not survive the shooting, richard godfried. carol black said it was an otherwise normal day on that saturday morning, october of 2018. that's when gunfire rang out. she and a few other members of her congregation fled down to the basement and hid in a closet just waiting for, hopefully, this gunman to pass over them.