Man who killed 11 people in Pittsburgh synagogue sentenced to death

Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, has received a death sentence.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue celebrated the “immense embrace” of the U.S. justice system at a news conference after the verdict, saying it confirmed that “our government doesn’t condone antisemitism. “We have the right to practice our Judaism, and no one will ever take that right away from us,” Religion News Service reported.

On Oct. 27, 2018, Bowers, a truck driver from the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, drove to Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, where three congregations were holding Shabbat services. After the defendant shot 11 of the gathered worshippers with an AR-15 rifle, he reportedly told law enforcement that “Jews are the children of Satan” and told a SWAT officer that “all these Jews needed to die.”

Bowers, 50, was found guilty on 63 charges, including 22 capital offenses, last month. He was then eligible for the death penalty under Pennsylvania law.

The jurors began deliberations on sentencing Tuesday, following instructions in a 26-page jury response form that told them to weigh aggravating factors against mitigating factors. The form listed Bowers’ apparent lack of remorse and bias against members of the Jewish faith as aggravating factors, while the mitigating factors included his reported brain abnormalities, history of attempted suicide and the defense’s claim that Bowers was motivated by a “delusional belief” that Jewish people are tools of Satan in a war between Satan and God.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville is due to formally sentence Bowers to death at a hearing on Thursday morning, during which some relatives of Bowers’ victims were expected to address the court.

The jury’s decision marks the first time since U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in January 2020 that federal prosecutors have successfully sought and won the death penalty. It is not clear when, if ever, Bowers will be executed. The U.S. Department of Justice has a moratorium on carrying out federal executions while it reviews the death penalty, which Biden pledged to abolish when he was running for the presidency.