Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni, a neurologist who reviewed Mr. Bowers’ medical records, said the defendant, who is 50 years old, had been involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities three times and had tried to kill himself at least once. He also said that as a child, Mr. Bowers experienced hallucinations and once tried to set his mother on fire.
“I don’t think he can interpret the world correctly, or prevent behavior based on his misinterpretation,” said Dr. Nadkarni, adding that Mr. other things, violent antisemitic posts on social media.
Expert witnesses for the prosecution disputed many of these contentions. They described Mr. Bowers as an isolated person who was emotionally abused as a child, but who is not severely mentally ill or delusional. Some of his most extreme beliefs about Jews, immigrants and white supremacy, were not the creation of his own mind, one expert witness said, but shared by “thousands and thousands of people”. in online forums and radio broadcasts on the right.
“The defense experts who testified that the accused had delusions,” said the witness, Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who has been consulted on many high-profile capital cases, “just mistook very ordinary widespread white separatist beliefs for delusions because they were unfamiliar with them.
Through testimony, a detailed picture of the defendant’s planning before the synagogue attack emerged.
Under lengthy cross-examination by prosecutors, Richard Rogers, a forensic psychologist called by the defense, said Mr. Bowers told him that he had begun preparing for an attack six months before he carried it out, and that he had considered other targets, including a Jewish center near a synagogue and an unnamed who is a Jewish man living in Cleveland.
At one point, Dr. Rogers testified, the defendant said he considered pumping poison gas into the synagogue, but decided the plan was impractical. He told Dr. Rogers said he shot some of his victims in the stomach because he wanted what he called a “brutal kill.” Years after the attack, Dr. Rogers testified, Mr. Bowers believes he deserves a parade and medals for what he did.
