Capital case against Robert Bowers: Prosecution, defense at odds over when trial should begin

By MEGAN GUZA

Federal prosecutors want Robert Bowers, charged with killing 11 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill last year, in front of a jury by this time next year, facing the death penalty. But his attorneys contend there would be no need for a trial if prosecutors had just accepted Bowers’ guilty plea.

The latest court filings, released Oct. 15, indicate that Bowers offered to plead in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of release. The government rejected the offer.

Prosecutors sought to nail down a trial date last month, proposing that jury selection begin Sept. 14, 2020. Bowers’ team, however, declined to agree. That prompted the government to ask U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose to intervene.

The defense team includes federal public defenders Elisa Long and Michael Novara as well as Judy Clarke, a lawyer known nationally for keeping high-profile clients from the death penalty, including Aurora theater shooter Jared Lee Loughner, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.

Clarke has said since the beginning that she hopes to resolve the case without going to trial.

Prosecutors argued in their September filing that the victims of the attack deserve timely justice, and thus the case, despite its complexities, should go to trial as soon as possible.

Defense attorneys responded by noting the judge should consider “that this case would already be over” if attorneys had accepted Bowers’ offer to plead guilty to life in prison with no chance of parole.

“Instead, and against the publicly expressed request of two of the congregations to resolve this case without a trial, the government has insisted on pursuing the death penalty,” the defense team wrote.

Robert Bowers

Bowers is charged with opening fire on Shabbat services at Tree of Life, which housed the congregations Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light. Eleven worshippers were killed and two were wounded. Four police officers were injured by gunfire. Bowers faces 63 federal charges and the death penalty.

Leaders of congregations Dor Hadash and New Light in early August called on Attorney General William Barr to keep the death penalty off the table in hopes of forgoing the trauma of a drawn-out trial. Prosecutors announced Aug. 23 they would pursue the death penalty.

The defense also argued that drafting a schedule now is “unrealistic” and fails to account for “the time-consuming working of investigating and presenting the history and background of a person on trial for his life” as well as the slew of legal issues that come with the trial lead-up.

Beyond that, defense attorneys wrote, jury selection on Sept. 14 would place the trial during the Jewish High Holy Days and “a likely penalty phase at or about the time of the second anniversary” of the shooting at Tree of Life.

Defense attorneys also argued that the proposed trial schedule would put proceedings at the tail end of the 2020 presidential election, in which, they predicted, Pennsylvania will likely be a battleground state.

“(Donald Trump) — having already publicly called for our client’s execution — may be expected to politicize this case again” and pollute the potential jury pool,” Bowers’ attorneys wrote.

Bowers’ attorneys proposed their own schedule in which the sides would not begin to discuss a trial date until August 2020.

A federal grand jury returned a 44-count indictment against Bowers four days after the shooting. An indictment in January added hate crime charges, bringing the total federal charges to 63.

Tree of Life congregant Daniel Leger, 71, was shot in the chest and spent a month in the hospital following the attack. His brother, Paul Leger, said he is dreading the court proceedings.

“I think we’re all not looking forward to the trial because it’s really questionable whether it’s necessary,” he said. “There is no doubt about whether this guy did it. Nobody is looking forward to that, with everybody repeating stories about the horrible things they went through.”

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.

New Light Rabbi Jonathan Perlman wrote in his Aug. 7 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.”