Feds to seek death penalty for accused Tree of Life gunman Robert Bowers

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, the man accused of being the gunman in a mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue last year, according to a filing Monday in U.S. District Court.

Bowers, 46, of Baldwin faces 63 federal charges, 22 of which are punishable by death, in connection with the rampage on Oct. 27 that left 11 worshippers across three congregations dead in the Tree of Life synagogue.

His lead attorney, Judy Clarke, has said she hopes to resolve the case with a plea deal.

Prosecutors outlined their case for capital punishment, including the fact that Bowers specifically targeted Jewish worshippers.

“(Bowers) targeted men and women participating in Jewish religious worship at the Tree of Life synagogue … in order to maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes and instill fear within the local, national and international Jewish communities,” prosecutors wrote.

The mass shooting was thought-out and intentional, attorneys wrote in the filing, and it targeted a vulnerable group of people.

The filing also noted Bowers’ alleged lack of remorse, “as evidenced by his statements and actions during the course of and following the commission of the offenses.”

Bowers allegedly told SWAT officers who took him into custody that he wanted “all Jews to die” and “(Jews) were committing genocide to his people,” according to the charges against him.

The mass shooting caused “serious physical and emotional injury” and “severe psychological impacts” to those who survived it, attorneys wrote.

The filing was signed by U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady, Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Troy Rivetti and Soo C. Song and special litigation counsel Julia Gegenheimer.

Prosecutors did not comment beyond the filing.

The decision came the same month that two of the three congregations housed in the synagogue called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to reject the death penalty in the case.

In a letter to Barr dated Aug. 9, Dor Hadash President Donna Coufal said a plea deal serves the interest of the congregation and public by eliminating a trial.

“In consideration of the significant injury to our congregation, Dor Hadash requests that the parties agree to a plea deal in which the perpetrator would accept a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole in exchange for the prosecution’s agreement not to seek the death penalty,” the letter read.

It’s what slain Dor Hadash congregant Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz would want, his wife wrote in a separate letter.

“In honor of his blessed memory, and his deep and abiding opposition to the death penalty, I am writing to urge you, in the strongest terms possible, to accept the offer made by the perpetrator to plead guilty,” Miri Rabinowitz wrote in her letter to Barr.

“Most of all,” she continued, “it would prevent the cruel and bitter irony of imposing the death sentence, ostensibly in Jerry’s name, when Jerry abhorred capital punishment and devoted himself in word and deed, professionally, personally and spiritually, to the sanctity of life.”

New Light Rabbi Jonathan Perlman wrote in his letter to Barr that “we have been depleted by the ordeal of this year.”

“He should meditate on whether taking action on some white separatist fantasy against the Jewish people was really worth it,” he wrote. “Let him live with it forever. I am mainly interested in not letting this thug cause my community any further pain.”

His wife, Beth Kissileff, agreed.

“I have no way of knowing whether the Pittsburgh shooter is capable of redemptive behavior, but I know from both Talmudic and contemporary sources that humans are capable of it. The best punishment, in my mind, would be to give the shooter a sentence and an opportunity to abjure his hateful beliefs about Jews and immigrants and work for tolerance and valuing diversity in our country,” Kissileff, who narrowly escaped the rampage, wrote in a Feb. 20 op-ed published in the Jerusalem Post.

She wrote that her husband was in the same room when the gunman shot and killed New Life congregants Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Richard Gottfried.

If convicted and sentenced to death, Bowers would become the only person from Western Pennsylvania on federal death row, but experts have said previously that the lengthy appeals process means that any execution would take years.