A federal judge has set the trial date for the man accused of killing 11 people in 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

The jury selection process will begin April 24, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville wrote in an order released Monday night.

Robert Bowers is charged in connection with the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue on Wilkins Avenue that housed congregations from Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty, despite pleas from some of the victims’ family members to allow Bowers to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. The Department of Justice rejected that offer.

Bowers’ attorneys want permission to ask potential jurors about their religious affiliation. The lawyers want requested that they or the clerk’s office be permitted to conduct a one-question survey of potential jurors to ensure that Catholics — and any other religious groups — are not being improperly excluded.

They filed a motion this month arguing that if Catholics are disproportionately excluded because of their stance against capital punishment, the jury hearing the case against Bowers would “inevitably produce a jury uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die,’ ” the defense stated.

Monday was the deadline for the government to file its written response to the defense motion.

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