Jewish Congregations Ask Attorney General Not to Seek Death Penalty in Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

Leaders from two of the three con­gre­ga­tions affect­ed by the October 27, 2018 shoot­ings at the Tree of Life syn­a­gogue (pic­tured) in Pittsburgh are ask­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment not to seek a death sen­tence for the accused white supremacist murderer.

Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation and President Donna Coufal of Dor Hadash Congregation wrote let­ters to Attorney General William Barr, request­ing that Robert Bowers, charged with killing 11 Jewish wor­ship­pers in Pittsburgh, receive a life sen­tence. Miri Rabinowitz, whose hus­band, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, was among those killed, joined the request in a sep­a­rate let­ter. The let­ters — which delib­er­ate­ly avoid using the shooter’s name to deny him addi­tion­al noto­ri­ety — high­light reli­gious objec­tions to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as well as con­cerns that a death-penal­ty tri­al would retrau­ma­tize sur­vivors of the shoot­ing and the vic­tims’ families. 

In March 2019, Rabbi Perlman — whose con­gre­ga­tion lost three mem­bers in the shoot­ing — and his wife, Beth Kissileff met with U.S. Department of Justice offi­cials about the killings. In an opin­ion arti­cle for the Religion News Service, Kissileff wrote that they urged fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors not to seek the death penal­ty in the case. ​“If as reli­gious peo­ple we believe that life is sacred, how can we be per­mit­ted to take a life, even the life of some­one who has com­mit­ted hor­ri­ble actions?,” she wrote. 

In an August 1, 2019 let­ter that he shared on Facebook one week lat­er, Rabbi Perlman explained to Barr his per­spec­tive ​“as a vic­tim of the attack and one who has spo­ken to our fam­i­lies.” “[W]e have been deplet­ed by the ordeal of this year,” he wrote, and ​“are still recov­er­ing from trau­ma.” He spoke of the oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment shared by both the Jewish faith and the Catholic Church, to which the Attorney General belongs: ​“Following many coun­tries around the world, I would like to believe that our nation is slow­ly phas­ing out this cru­el form of jus­tice. Both our reli­gious tra­di­tions, yours Catholic and mine Jewish, vig­or­ous­ly oppose the death penal­ty,” Perlman wrote. 

Rabbi Perlman also expressed his views on what pun­ish­ment was most appro­pri­ate for the syn­a­gogue shoot­er. ​“I would like the Pittsburgh killer to be incar­cer­at­ed for the rest of his life with­out parole. He should med­i­tate on whether tak­ing action on some white sep­a­ratist fan­ta­sy against the Jewish peo­ple was real­ly worth it. Let him live with it for­ev­er,” he wrote. Expressing con­cerns about the impact of a tri­al on the Pittsburgh Jewish com­mu­ni­ty, Perlman said, ​“We are still attend­ing to our wounds, both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al, and I don’t want to see them opened any more. …A drawn out and dif­fi­cult death penal­ty tri­al would be a dis­as­ter with wit­ness­es and attor­neys dredg­ing up hor­ri­fy­ing dra­ma and giv­ing this killer the media atten­tion he does not deserve.” 

Donna Coufal, President of the Dor Hadash Congregation, wrote on behalf of her congregation’s board and mem­bers to encour­age Attorney General Barr to accept the plea deal offered by Bowers’ lawyers and to avoid a lengthy high-pro­file death-penal­ty 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,” she wrote. ​“We believe that the elim­i­na­tion of a tri­al and pub­lic­i­ty for the shoot­er serves the inter­est of our con­gre­ga­tion, as well as the gen­er­al pub­lic. A plea bar­gain for life with­out parole will pre­vent this indi­vid­ual get­ting the atten­tion and pub­lic­i­ty that would inevitably come with a trial.” 

Miri Rabinowitz, whose hus­band, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, belonged to Dor Hadash and was killed in the attack, wrote sep­a­rate­ly to say that sen­tenc­ing his killer to death would vio­late his beliefs. ​“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,” she wrote. Her let­ter also empha­sized the desire to avoid the trau­ma of a tri­al and the atten­tion it would draw to the defen­dant and his white suprema­cist beliefs. The plea deal, she said, would allow her to ​“con­tin­ue the slow and painful process of heal­ing with­out hav­ing to relieve the hor­rif­ic cir­cum­stances of Jerry’s mur­der through a tri­al and inevitable lengthy appeals and deny the per­pe­tra­tor a pub­lic plat­form from which to spew his most vicious, and sad­ly infec­tious brand of hatred.” ​“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.”