Death Penalty in Pittsburgh Shooting Spree

P I T T S B U R G H, May 11, 2001 -- An unemployed immigration lawyer was sentencedto death today for killing five people in a racially motivatedshooting spree in suburban Pittsburgh last year.

Richard Baumhammers, 35, was sentenced by the same jury thatfound him guilty of the April 28, 2000, attacks two days earlier.Jurors had the option of giving him a life sentence withoutparole.

Prosecutors said Baumhammers, who is white, selected his victimsbecause of their ethnic backgrounds.

Baumhammers' lawyers asked jurors to spare his life, saying hismental state made it impossible for him to control his actions.

"In our society it is not your function to administer revenge.It is your function to administer justice," defense attorney JamesWymard told jurors before sentencing. "It is not justice to killsomeone who is mentally ill."

Admirer of McVeigh and Hitler

Prosecutor Ed Borkowski called 15 witnesses during the penaltyphase of the trial, most of them friends or family of the slain.

Killed in the rampage were Baumhammers' Jewish neighbor, twoAsian men, an Indian man and a black man. Another man of Indiandescent was critically wounded as Baumhammers drove from place toplace in his black Jeep.

During the trial, psychiatrists testified that Baumhammers wastormented by delusions that the FBI and CIA were on his tail, thatthe family maid was a spy and that his skin was peeling off.

Borkowski acknowledged that Baumhammers was mentally ill butsaid he was "controlled, deliberate, calculating and selective"in picking victims, avoiding attention and eluding police.

He said Baumhammers read racist and anti-immigration literatureand saw Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Adolf Hitler asheroes.

Borkowski said Baumhammers wanted others to help him fightagainst nonwhite immigration and finally decided to take mattersinto his own hands.

Baumhammers becomes the 241st person on Pennsylvania's deathrow. Three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since 1995.