A Pittsburgh man convicted of fatally shooting 11 people and wounding seven at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 is eligible to face the death penalty for his crimes, a federal jury ruled Thursday.

The 12-member panel deliberated for just under two hours over two days before deciding unanimously that Robert G. Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, Pa., acted with sufficient intent in carrying out the rampage to satisfy the statutory requirements under federal law to be considered for capital punishment.

Death penalty trials operate in two parts - a guilt phase and a sentencing phase. The same jury found Bowers guilty in June on 63 hate crime and gun-related charges in the mass shooting on Oct. 27, 2018, which authorities said was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

The sentencing phase of the trial began in late June, and the jury heard 21/2 weeks of testimony to determine whether Bowers met the legal requirements to be eligible for a death sentence. In voting that he did, the jury will now hear testimony over whether Bowers should be sentenced to death or face life in prison.

Judge Robert J. Colville scheduled those proceedings, which could last several weeks, to begin Monday at the Joseph F. Weis, Jr., U.S. Courthouse in Pittsburgh.

Bowers's attorneys, who did not dispute that he carried out the killings, presented no evidence during the guilt phase of the trial. However, when the sentencing phase began, they argued that Bowers suffered from brain impairments, including schizophrenia and epilepsy, that should disqualify him from capital punishment. They said the mental deficiencies made it difficult for Bowers to make rational decisions and led him to become delusional.

Prosecutors said Bowers was fully aware of what he was doing; he had posted dozens of antisemitic messages on a far-right social media site popular with neo-Nazis and told authorities after the shooting that he had targeted Jews. Defense attorneys, however, said that Bowers was acting on an irrational fear that one of the three congregations that shared the Tree of Life synagogue was helping to resettle immigrants in the United States, which he viewed as a threat to Americans.

The defense team called several neurologists and mental health experts to provide technical testimony about scans of Bowers's brain and other tests that they said showed signs of potentially long-standing mental illness.

Federal prosecutors countered by presenting their own medical experts who said the results of the tests did not necessarily mean Bowers had debilitating brain deficiencies and that he had offered clear answers to law enforcement authorities and doctors after being apprehended about why he carried out the mass killing.

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