Will Pittsburgh synagogue shooter be spared the death penalty?

The prospect of sparing Robert Bowers' life drew strong objections from those who lost family members, friends and neighbors.

By JONATHAN D. SALANT/PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE/TNS DECEMBER 16, 2024 14:57 Updated: DECEMBER 16, 2024 14:58

The Tree of Life synagogue at the intersection of Shady and Wilkins avenues, in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, on Oct. 30, 2018. (photo credit: John Altdorfer/Zuma Press/TNS)

A campaign by members of Congress and advocacy groups to commute the sentences of 40 prisoners facing the death penalty could spare the man convicted of killing 11 worshippers in a Squirrel Hill synagogue, the worst antisemitic attack in American history.

Death penalty opponents have rallied at the US Capitol and used calls, letters, and postcards to push President Joe Biden to use his clemency power before he leaves office next month. Biden this month pardoned his son and dozens of others, and granted clemency to another 1,400 people.

"Mr. President, you and you alone have the power to save lives and you must use it," US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said last week outside the Capitol, surrounded by 30 representatives of anti-death penalty groups.

But the prospect of sparing Robert Bowers' life drew strong objections from those who lost family members, friends and neighbors in the October 27, 2018, shooting at the building housing three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Life, and Tree of Life.

He was convicted in June 2023 of 63 federal charges and a jury sentenced him to death. Families of the victims say that should be the final verdict.

This image widely distributed by US media on October 27, 2018 shows a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) ID picture of Robert Bowers (credit: AFP PHOTO)

"The jury was selected to make that decision," said Diane Rosenthal of Chicago, who lost two brothers in the massacre. "For a president to come in and grant clemency, to change that sentence of a murderer who on top of it showed no more remorse ... I feel there is no regard for due process of justice."

The calls for clemency for those on death row gained new currency following the reelection of Donald Trump as president. In the last year of Trump's first term, 13 federal prisoners were executed — more than in the previous eight decades combined, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Last month, 67 House Democrats, including US Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, sent a letter to Biden, urging him to use his clemency power in the closing weeks of his presidency, including commuting sentences of the 40 people on death row.

Their campaign to spare those prisoners is born out of their objection to the government-sanctioned killing of anyone.

"I'm sorry for what happened to your loved ones. I would have done anything I could to prevent that," said Abraham Bonowitz, a cofounder of L'chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, "But what I don't want is to allow our government to have the power or obligation to carry out executions."

---

---

Death penalty opponents are pushing Biden to sit down with just one of them — the Rev. Sharon Risher.

Her mother, two cousins and a childhood friend were among the nine worshippers gunned down at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, on June 17, 2015, by Dylann Roof — another of the 40 individuals on federal death row and who, like Bowers, espoused white supremacist and bigoted rhetoric before carrying out a mass killing.

"Lord, what I wouldn't tell him," Risher said, referring to Biden. "When you have to look a person in the eye who has gone through what I have gone through and I'm asking you to not let these people be killed, I just don't think you're going to walk away the same way you came in."

In addition, commuting a death sentence just means Bowers will spend more time behind bars, said Bruce Ledewitz, a professor of law at Duquesne University and an opponent of the death penalty,

"Either way, he's going to be in prison until he dies," said Ledewitz, who formerly ran a death penalty project at Duquesne representing people in capital cases. "It's not like he's going to go free."

As for those whose loved ones Bowers killed, discussion of clemency is another reminder of their loss.

"For each of these families, it's their own private Holocaust," said Lou Weiss of Pittsburgh, a pro-Israel activist.

To them, it's not about whether the death penalty is right or wrong; it's that no one should overturn the work of the judge and jury.

"Generally, the legal proceeding in the name of justice that came out of a jury was so profound and so important," said Maggie Feinstein, executive director of the the 10.27 Healing Partnership, which helps those traumatized by the shootings.

"The idea that the president takes singular action for something that had such a deliberative process would feel undermining to that process. The experience of the jury taking on the process to bear witness, I can't overemphasize how important that was."

Just ask Carol Black, of Cranberry, who lost her brother, Richard Gottfried.

"Overturning this lawful sentence would undermine the justice system and disrespect the tireless efforts of law enforcement, prosecutors, and jurors who worked to ensure our community's safety," said Black, who survived the shooting.

Or Diane Rosenthal's sister, Michele, of Pittsburgh, who said: "I really respect the judicial process and for the length of time it took, I would ask for it to be respected."

Or a survivor of the shooting and one of the witnesses in the trial, Andrea Wedner, of Squirrel Hill, whose mother was killed.

The jurors, she said, "heard chilling and heart-breaking testimony from survivors, listened to harrowing 911 calls, examined graphic autopsy photos, and endured hours of expert testimony. ... After fulfilling their duty with diligence and impartiality, the jury unanimously concluded that the shooter was guilty and eligible for the harshest penalty allowed by law. They ultimately determined that a death sentence was the just and appropriate verdict. This is how the justice system is designed to function, and we believe there should be no pardon or clemency in this case."

Howard Fienberg, of Tysons Corner, Va., whose mother was killed in the synagogue shooting, said cases for commutation should be considered individually, not en masse.

'Never showed the slightest bit of remorse'

"I was there in the courtroom with this guy all summer and he has never shown the slightest bit of remorse," Fienberg said. "There was no mistake made with him being identified and charged with the crime. Everybody knows he did it."

And putting Bowers on death row means he'll never get out prison, never move to a more lenient facility and never command attention again, Fienberg said.

"The whole point of getting the death penalty in this case was not truly in the end about the final outcome, it was making sure there was no way he was ever getting out," Fienberg said. "It's about isolating him as much as anything else. The only way you can guarantee that at all is with the death penalty."