Pittsburgh synagogue shooter sentenced to death

The sentencing of Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 shooting, has reignited debates about the death penalty in the Jewish community.

PITTSBURGH (JTA) — A jury has given the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter a death sentence, handing down the maximum punishment for the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history.

The sentence marks an end to the months-long trial of Robert Bowers, who was convicted in June of murdering 11 Jews during Shabbat prayers on Oct. 27, 2018.

The shooting, at a synagogue in the historically Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, changed the way Jews across the United States viewed themselves and their place in American society. It was a stark example of a rising tide of antisemitism and led Jewish institutions across the country to bolster their physical security.

The gunman’s lawyers had not contested his guilt but argued that the act was a result of his mental illness and did not merit a death sentence. On Wednesday, the jury rejected that argument, deciding unanimously that he should be put to death. Many of the victims’ families, though not all, had pushed for the gunman to receive a death sentence.

Bowers’ sentence makes him the most prominent person to be condemned to death for antisemitic crimes since Adolf Eichmann, convicted and executed by Israel in 1962 for his role in perpetrating the Holocaust.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville, who presided over the trial, is bound to honor the jury’s verdict. The jury’s decision, though, does not mark an end to the case, as Bowers, like all people sentenced to death, is entitled to an appeal.

Colville took 26 minutes to read the entirety of the jurors’ responses, including detailed votes on each of the factors that the prosecution and defense should figure into their decision-making.

The jurors’ assessments of the 115 factors the defense offered for why Bowers should not be executed showed that they had not accepted the defense’s central argument: that Bowers’ antisemitism stemmed from a mental illness.