EDITORIALS: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Calls on the Justice Department to ​‘Drop the Death Penalty’ in Synagogue Shooting

On April 9, 2023, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to with­draw the government’s pur­suit of the death penal­ty and accept a plea deal for a manda­to­ry life sen­tence in the mass shoot­ing at a syn­a­gogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. The edi­tors not­ed that seek­ing a death sen­tence: ​“would, in effect, re-enact the worst case of anti-Semitic vio­lence in U.S. his­to­ry through wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, media cov­er­age and appeals that could con­tin­ue for up to 20 years.” The tri­al is sched­uled to begin soon with jury selec­tion on April 24.

The paper asked Garland to heed the plea of Congregation Dor Hadash and oth­ers close to those who were killed to ​“heal in peace” and to keep to ​“the sacred tenets of the[ir] faith” by avoid­ing the death penal­ty. The edi­tors warned that ​“A high-pro­file tri­al would give the accused killer a sick­en­ing noto­ri­ety that would unleash extraordinary pain.”

The death penal­ty, the Post-Gazette said, ​“is on its way out,” cit­ing new­ly elect­ed Governor Josh Shapiro’s call to the Pennsylvania General Assembly to repeal cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The gov­er­nor spoke with the Jewish sur­vivors of the mass shoot­ing who oppose the death penal­ty. The edi­tors also not­ed that fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors did not seek the death penal­ty in a com­pa­ra­ble killing of 23 peo­ple in a racist attack at a Texas Walmart in 2019.