Ruminations: Divided on the Death Penalty, Tree of Life Atrocity

"It has been nearly five years since eleven people were taken from us."
"They were beloved and valued family members, friends and neighbours."
"They cannot speak for themselves, and so their family members will speak for them."
Maggie Feinstein, director, 10.217 Healing Partnership

Sometimes there are crimes so heinous and so far-reaching in their effects on individuals, on communities, on a wide swath of humanity that they can only conclude with that most difficult of all punishments; taking a life for an act that has excited this retribution that civilized societies would prefer not to exercise. Most of the families of the eleven victims of a devastating crime of mass murder supported the decision of federal prosecutors to take the case of a gunman who attacked innocent people at a Pittsburgh synagogue to trial, to pursue the death penalty.

"Significant progress has been made in the past eighty years [in combating antisemitism] but there is still work to be done."
"This trial is an important step in drawing a line between speech and action."
"We commend the jury on their difficult work and trust in their judgment as we enter the final sentencing phase of the trial."
New Light Congregation statement

An impromptu memorial stands in 2018 outside the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh Photo: Matt Rourke/AP

"[The shooter’s delusions [schizophrenia] 'took over his thinking'."
"In 2018, that delusional belief system took over his thinking and made him incapable of really doing anything except following the dictates of that belief system."
"People don’t go into a church and kill a bunch of older people for no reason. We’ve tried to provide you with reasons that we think explain how this horrible crime could’ve happened."
Defense attorney Michael Burt

"He just believes things that are repugnant."

"Even if the defendant had these illnesses, they would say nothing about whether he could form the intent to kill."
"Don’t be distracted from the simple and commonsense fact that everything the defendant did in the months leading up to October 27 and on that horrific day was because that’s exactly what he intended to do."
Prosecutor Eric Olshan

In the end, the Pittsburgh federal jury found that in their opinion the gunman who murdered eleven Jews in 2018, at a synagogue in Pittsburgh was eligible for the death penalty. Next up, hearings for further evidence and testimony linked to whether the man should be sentenced to death, or serve life imprisonment. The government itself is committed to seeking capital punishment for Robert Bowers, 50, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, Pennsylvania.

A man whose depth of hatred for Jews was so deep that he sought out his victims by invading the sanctity of a synagogue while they were at prayer, storming the Tree of Life synagogue with an AR-15 rifle along with other weapons. His singular psychotic deliberately lethal rage had the distinction of being named the deadliest antisemitic carnage ever to take place in the United States.

Prosecutors pointed out at trial that Bowers had planned the attack for six months before putting it into stunning action, and realizing success in denying continued life to eleven Jews, most of them elderly. A man incapable of fully recognizing that the mass murder he committed represented a crime of unforgivable proportions. Following the bloodbath he expressed his regret that he failed to succeed in killing a greater number of people. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Bowers had formed the requisite legal intent to kill, thus making him eligible for the death penalty.

When the verdict was delivered, there was little reaction to be seen on the murderer's face; typical of his entire trial demeanour. The impact of Bowers' crimes on survivors and those who are family members of the victims will be expressed as testimony. In addition to the deaths of eleven people, Bowers wounded two more worshippers and five police officers. He had been convicted a month earlier on 63 criminal counts, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of the free exercise of religion, resulting in death.

Prosecutors had refused Bowers' attorneys' offer of a guilty plea in return for a life sentence. Should the jurors finally decide that Bowers is deserving of death, it would represent the first federal death sentence imposed, and presumably carried out during the presidency of Joe Biden who campaigned on a pledge to end capital punishment.

"We are not a ruthless, uncompassionate people; we, as a persecuted people, understand when there is a time for compassion and when there is a time to stand up and say enough is enough – such violent hatred will not be tolerated on this earth."
"Please don’t tell us how we should feel, what is best for us, what will comfort us and what will bring closure for the victims’ families. You can not and will not speak for us."
"The massacre of our loved ones was a clear violation of American law – mass murder of Jews for simply being Jewish and practicing Judaism, driven by sheer antisemitism – which the law rightfully deems is a capital offense."
Letter, Victims' family members

"I would like the Pittsburgh killer to be incarcerated for the rest of his life without parole. He should meditate on whether taking action on some white separatist fantasy against the Jewish people was really worth it. Let him live with it forever."
"[My focus is on] not letting this thug cause my community any further pain."

"We are still attending to our wounds, both physical and emotional, and I don’t want to see them reopened any more. Many of us are healing but many of us [have] been re-traumatized multiple times." "A drawn-out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve."
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, New Light Congregation