SAN DIEGO — The man accused of opening fire in a Poway synagogue, killing one person and wounding three others, has signed a conditional plea agreement that is now in the hands of the U.S. attorney general, who is still deciding whether to pursue the federal death penalty in the case, attorneys said at a court hearing Friday. The terms of the plea offer were not disclosed. John T. Earnest, 21, is indicted on 113 counts in the case. Newly installed U.S. Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland will now have to decide how to procced. He could accept the terms of the plea or negotiate new ones. Or he could reject the possibility of a deal and continue to trial, a choice that would also have to include whether to seek the death penalty. The highest levels of the Department of Justice have been weighing the capital punishment option since September. But a decision was not reached under the Trump administration, and the presidential transition put the decision on Garland’s desk. Federal death penalty...
Striving for a World without Capital Punishment