Jewish Congregation Renews Request for Department of Justice to Drop Death Penalty in Tree of Life Synagogue Killings

A Jewish con­gre­ga­tion whose mem­bers were among the eleven peo­ple killed by a white suprema­cist in an attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life syn­a­gogue in October 2018 has renewed its request for the Department of Justice to drop the death penal­ty against the accused gunman. 

In a June 24, 2021 let­ter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Bruce Herschlag, the President of Congregation Dor Hadash, urged the Justice Department to ​“aban­don its quest for the death penal­ty” against Robert Bowers, who is charged in the shootings. 

“We are desirous of see­ing jus­tice met­ed out in a man­ner that is both con­sis­tent with our reli­gious val­ues and spares us from the painful ordeal of pro­longed legal maneu­ver­ing lead­ing to a lengthy tri­al and years of unpre­dictable appeals,” Herschlag wrote. ​“The impo­si­tion of mul­ti­ple life sen­tences would ensure that the per­pe­tra­tor is nev­er released. This is the out­come we desire.”

This is the sec­ond time the con­gre­ga­tion has asked a U.S. Attorney General to forego the death penal­ty in the case. In August 2019, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation and Donna Coufal, then President of Dor Hadash, wrote let­ters to Attorney General William Barr implor­ing the Justice Department to end legal pro­ceed­ings in the case by enter­ing a plea deal for mul­ti­ple life sen­tences. Miri Rabinowitz, whose hus­band, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, was among the mem­bers of Dor Hadash killed in the attack, joined the request in a sep­a­rate let­ter. In March 2019, Rabbi Perlman and his wife, writer Beth Kissileff, met with U.S. Department of Justice offi­cials about the killings and asked them not to seek the death penalty.

The Justice Department ignored their prior entreaties.

Herschlag’s let­ter to Garland stressed Jewish teach­ing, which it char­ac­ter­ized as incom­pat­i­ble with the death penal­ty. ​“Judaism, as a reli­gion, val­ues life above almost all else,” he wrote. ​“Justice must be tem­pered by mercy.” 

Herschlag allud­ed to Jewish his­to­ry, writ­ing, ​“In Jewish tra­di­tion, courts impos­ing cap­i­tal sen­tences have been viewed as blood­thirsty since the days of the sages.” The let­ter specif­i­cal­ly ref­er­ences Dr. Rabinowitz, who was a strong oppo­nent of the death penal­ty. A plea deal for life in prison, the let­ter says, ​“would hon­or Jerry’s memory.”

Dana Kellerman, the com­mu­ni­ca­tions chair for Dor Hadash, said the let­ter was prompt­ed by the change of pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tions. ​“The lead­er­ship at the Justice Department has changed, and we don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly know if they plan on tak­ing the same approach or might be open to tak­ing a new approach,” Kellerman said. She said it was impor­tant that Attorney General Garland know the con­gre­ga­tion opposed the death penal­ty. ​“We feel very strong­ly we don’t want this to drag on and retrau­ma­tize peo­ple who have already been deeply traumatized.”

Garland is Jewish, and, dur­ing his con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing, recount­ed his family’s expe­ri­ence with reli­gious hatred. ​“I come from a fam­i­ly where my grand­par­ents fled anti­semitism and per­se­cu­tion,” Garland said. ​“The coun­try took us in and pro­tect­ed us, and I feel an oblig­a­tion to the coun­try to pay back — this is the high­est, best use of my own set of skills to pay back.”

On July 1, Garland announced a tem­po­rary mora­to­ri­um on fed­er­al exe­cu­tions while the Department of Justice reviews death-penal­ty reg­u­la­to­ry and pol­i­cy changes put into effect dur­ing the last two years of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion. The review does not encom­pass, nor does the mora­to­ri­um affect, DOJ death-penal­ty charg­ing prac­tices. In a fed­er­al court hear­ing for two men charged with the mur­der of rap­per Jam Master Jay, Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell told the court: ​“Our inter­nal guid­ance on that is that our review pol­i­cy has not changed, that we are still to go through our procedure.”