United States: Perpetrator of 2018 Pittsburgh anti-Semitic attack sentenced to death

The perpetrator of a 2018 armed attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest against Jews in U.S. history, was sentenced to death Wednesday by a federal jury, US media reported. But the sentence may not be carried out, due to a moratorium on federal executions. A total of 11 people were murdered in the attack.

A Star of David honors the victims of the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, July 13, 2023. © Gene J. Puskar / AP

Text by: RFI Follow

Advertising

Read more

This is a first under President Joe Biden. The twelve members of the jury voted unanimously in favor of capital punishment against Robert Bowers, according to these media.

During a first phase of this exceptional trial, in a context of surge in anti-Semitic acts in the United States, this white truck driver was found guilty in mid-June of perpetrating eleven murders with aggravating circumstances on October 27, 2018 in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, northeastern United States.

This conviction would then have to be formally pronounced by a federal judge. However, this sentence may not be enforced because the Department of Justice has instituted a moratorium on federal executions.

The issue of the death penalty was central to this case. As early as 2019, the federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh had warned that he would seek the death penalty against the perpetrator of the killing, citing his "lack of remorse" and "hatred and contempt" for Jews.

During the investigation phase, lawyers for Robert Bowers had offered in vain to plead "guilty" in exchange for the guarantee that their client would not be sentenced to death. The Department of Justice refused.

On October 27, 2018, Robert Bowers burst into the Tree of Life synagogue, armed with three pistols and a semi-automatic assault rifle. Shouting "all Jews must die," he opened fire and killed eleven people, including a 97-year-old worshipper, in the middle of a Shabbat ceremony in a historic Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh, committing the bloodiest attack on the community in the United States.

Before that, he posted racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages on a far-right social network.

Trial that has revived debates on capital punishment

Then-President Donald Trump had called for the death penalty, a request followed by the then-Justice Department and confirmed after Democratic President Joe Biden's term began on January 20, 2021.

But while candidate Biden had pledged in 2020 to abolish the death penalty at the national level, this trial has revived debates around this supreme punishment still practiced in many American states.

During the trial, his lawyer Judy Clarke had admitted from the outset that his client was indeed the man who had shot Jews. "There is no point in seeking meaning in a senseless act," she said, seeking above all to save Bowers' life rather than plead his innocence.

American Jewish organizations have, as in June, welcomed this verdict. The latter would be proof, according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), that "the United States does not tolerate hatred or violence against Jews and against any follower of another religion."

Surge in racist and anti-Semitic acts

The Bowers trial took place against a backdrop of a surge in racist and anti-Semitic acts in the United States, at their highest level in 30 years, according to statistics from the federal police, the FBI, cited in April by the Washington Post.

According to the American organization for the fight against anti-Semitism Anti Defamation League, the world's leading power had experienced in 2021 a record number of 2,717 anti-Semitic acts (aggressions, verbal attacks, material damage ...). This was a 34% increase compared to 2020, the year of Covid and lockdowns.

For 2022, this association counted 3,697 anti-Semitic acts (+36% over one year), unseen since 1979.

The United States has the largest number of Jewish people in the world, behind Israel. In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, there were some 5.8 million Jewish adults in the United States, whether religious or not, plus 2.8 million adults who claim a Jewish parent.

(

With AFP)

NewsletterReceive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Share:

Read on on the same topics:

• United States
• Criminality
• Racism