Jurors Sentence Robert Bowers to Death for 2018 Synagogue Shooting

On August 1, 2023, death-qual­i­fied fed­er­al jurors unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed a sen­tence of death for Robert Bowers, who they had ear­li­er con­vict­ed of killing 11 Jewish wor­ship­pers at a Pittsburgh syn­a­gogue in October 2018. The jury agreed with all five aggra­vat­ing fac­tors alleged by the pros­e­cu­tion dur­ing the penal­ty phase but reject­ed defense counsel’s argu­ment that Mr. Bowers’ schiz­o­phre­nia and delu­sions meant he should not be sen­tenced to death. He will be for­mal­ly sen­tenced by the court on August 3, 2023. Family mem­bers of the vic­tims, some of whom will address the court before sen­tenc­ing, have been divid­ed about the pun­ish­ment that Mr. Bowers should receive. 

Mr. Bowers had offered to plead guilty in exchange for a sen­tence of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, but the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment reject­ed that offer. This is the first fed­er­al death sen­tence since 2019 and the first secured by the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice. In March, an unsuc­cess­ful effort to secure a fed­er­al death sen­tence in the tri­al of Sayfullo Saipov, who killed 8 bik­ers on a New York City bike path in 2017, end­ed in eight con­sec­u­tive life sentences. 

The next steps for Mr. Bowers will include an auto­mat­ic appeal to the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which will con­duct a review of the tri­al record for errors. Mr. Bowers may then appeal that deci­sion to the United States Supreme Court for dis­cre­tionary review. If unsuc­cess­ful, he will have just one mean­ing­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to chal­lenge his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in fed­er­al habeas pro­ceed­ings by assert­ing oth­er claims and evi­dence, and then pur­sue appeals through the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court. 

Mr. Bowers will be the 42^nd per­son on the fed­er­al death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. Federally death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers usu­al­ly spend many years and some­times decades on the restric­tive fed­er­al death row before an exe­cu­tion date is set. The last exe­cu­tions occurred in 2020 – 2021 when thir­teen pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment under the Trump Administration. No exe­cu­tions have occurred dur­ing the Biden Administration because Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a July 2021 mem­o­ran­dum that declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while the DOJ reviews its exe­cu­tion poli­cies and pro­ce­dures. That review has not been com­plet­ed. In the same mem­o­ran­dum, Attorney General Garland not­ed that “[s]erious con­cerns have been raised about the con­tin­ued use of the death penal­ty across the coun­try, includ­ing arbi­trari­ness in its appli­ca­tion, dis­parate impact on peo­ple of col­or, and the trou­bling num­ber of exon­er­a­tions in cap­i­tal and oth­er serious cases.”

Mr. Bowers may face yet anoth­er tri­al and anoth­er pos­si­ble death sen­tence if the Allegheny County dis­trict attorney’s office decides to move for­ward with state charges of crim­i­nal homi­cide. The office has said it will con­sult with fam­i­ly mem­bers before mak­ing a final deci­sion. There is a cur­rent­ly a gov­er­nor-imposed mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The DOJ is still con­sid­er­ing whether to seek a death sen­tence for Payton Gendron, accused of killing ten peo­ple at the Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2022. New York state opt­ed out of using the death penal­ty; how­ev­er, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has juris­dic­tion to seek a death sen­tence there and in all oth­er U.S. states, ter­ri­to­ries, and Washington, D.C. The DOJ recent­ly decid­ed against seek­ing a death sen­tence for Patrick Crusius, who pled guilty of killing 23 peo­ple and injur­ing 22 oth­ers in an El Paso, Texas Walmart in August 2019. Mr. Crusius pled guilty and was sen­tenced to 90 con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences. In July, El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks announced that he will pros­e­cute and seek a state death sen­tence for Mr. Crusius.