Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Will Receive Death Penalty, Jury Decides

Topline

Robert Bowers—the man convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018—will face the death penalty after a Pennsylvania jury agreed he should be executed after carrying out the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history.

Key Facts

Key Background

On October 27, 2018, Bowers killed 11 people and injured six others when he opened fire on a crowd of worshipers using an AR-15 style rifle at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In June, he was convicted on all 63 charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes causing death, 11 counts of using a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a violent crime and 11 counts of obstruction of the exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death. A month later, the jury found Bowers eligible for the death penalty and began deliberating that sentencing earlier this week.

Tangent

The shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history and one of 336 mass shootings in 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Also, that year, 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Surprising Fact

This was the second federal death penalty case to be prosecuted under President Joe Biden, who is generally opposed to the death penalty. The first case concerned a terrorist who drove a U-Haul into pedestrians and cyclists in New York City in 2017, killing eight people and injuring dozens more. In that case, a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Even though the jury ruled in favor of Bowers receiving the death penalty, it will likely be years before he is executed since the Justice Department currently has a moratorium on capital punishment. The Biden-era Department of Justice has also fought to uphold Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence, which was handed down during the Obama Administration.

Big Number

50. That’s how many executions have been carried out in the federal system since 1927, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The most recent federal execution was on January 16, 2021, when Duston John Higgs was executed at a maximum security federal prison in Indiana. He was the last person to be executed under former President Donald Trump.

Further Reading

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: Jury Finds Gunman Eligible For Death Penalty (Forbes)

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Found Guilty For 2018 Mass Killing That Left 11 Dead (Forbes)