Three Years After Attack on Synagogue, Status of Trials in Tree of Life Killings Remains Unclear

Three years after the reli­gious­ly-moti­vat­ed attack on Pittsburgh​’s Tree of Life syn­a­gogue, the sta­tus of the state and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tions in the case remains unset­tled. As the three Jewish con­gre­ga­tions who wor­ship at the syn­a­gogue marked the anniver­sary of the October 27, 2018 attack that took the lives of eleven con­gre­gants, no tri­al date is in sight and the prospect of a cap­i­tal tri­al that many in the tight­ly-knit com­mu­ni­ty oppose con­tin­ues to delay healing.

Lawyers for the accused shoot­er, Robert Bowers, whose social media posts reflect white suprema­cist and vir­u­lent­ly anti-Semitic views, said that Bowers is will­ing to plead guilty and spare the com­mu­ni­ty the trau­ma of a tri­al if pros­e­cu­tors drop the death penal­ty. They told U.S. District Court Judge Donetta Ambrose in 2019 that the ​“case would already be over — and inter­ests in a speedy res­o­lu­tion vin­di­cat­ed — had the gov­ern­ment accept­ed the defendant’s offer to plead guilty as charged and be sen­tenced to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of release.” 

Carol Black, who sur­vived the attack by hid­ing in a store­room, told Associated Press, ​“We would like to move on with our lives and we would like to get this over [and] done with.” 

In March 2019, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman — who was wound­ed in the attack and whose New Light Congregation lost three mem­bers in the shoot­ing — and his wife, Beth Kissileff were inter­viewed by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) offi­cials and urged them not to seek the death penal­ty. Perlman, Donna Coufal, then President of the Dor Hadash Congregation, and Miri Rabinowitz, the wid­ow of Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, wrote let­ters to U.S. Attorney General William Barr again ask­ing DOJ to forego the death penal­ty. Federal pros­e­cu­tors nev­er­the­less informed the court that they would cap­i­tal­ly pros­e­cute the case.

Following President Biden’s elec­tion, Congregation Dor Hadash’s new President, Bruce Herschlag, wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in June 2021 ask­ing the Justice Department to ​“aban­don its quest for the death penal­ty.” Although Biden admin­is­tra­tion pros­e­cu­tors dropped the death penal­ty and accept­ed a guilty plea September 21, 2021 in the case of anoth­er white suprema­cist who killed one con­gre­gant and wound­ed three oth­ers in a Passover attack on the Chabad of Poway syn­a­gogue in San Diego, the Justice Department con­tin­ues to seek death in the Pittsburgh killings. Allegheny County pros­e­cu­tors have deferred action on state mur­der charges until the fed­er­al case is resolved.

In an October 15, 2021 com­men­tary on the Jewish news web­site, The Forward, Kissileff expressed her con­tin­u­ing oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in the case. ​“There is no com­mu­nal val­ue nor heal­ing in respond­ing to vio­lence with more vio­lence,” she wrote. ​“True jus­tice for our mur­dered com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers requires only assur­ance from the Justice Department that their killer will remain per­ma­nent­ly in prison.”