Neo-Nazi Gunman Who Carried Out Pittsburgh Synagogue Slaughter is Sentenced to Death

The neo-Nazi gunman who slaughtered 11 worshippers and wounded six more people in the Oct. 27, 12018 attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue has been sentenced to death by a federal jury.

The verdict, which requires juror unanimity in the case of the death sentence, was announced on Wednesday morning.

The gunman — Robert Bowers, a 50-year-old trucker from Baldwin, Pa., — had already been convicted on all 63 criminal counts in the massacre he carried out during shabbat services at the synagogue, which housed three congregations. The charges include 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. On July 13, the jury decided that Bowers was eligible for the death penalty, moving their deliberations onto sentencing.

After 10 hours of deliberation over the last two days — during which jurors asked to inspect Bowers’ guns and asked questions about his family history — the jury agreed on the death penalty.

As he carried out the worst antisemitic atrocity in American history, Bowers burst into the synagogue shouting “All Jews must die” as he opened fire on the defenseless congregants.

Prosecutors say Bowers frequently posted antisemitic comments on right-wing social-media websites, including a post on the morning of the shooting in which he decried the work of a US Jewish charity, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Among those killed in the attack were a 97-year-old woman, two brothers in their 50s and a married couple in their 80s. Two civilians and five police officers were wounded before the gunman was shot by police and surrendered.

A forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Bowers told the court last month that he was in no doubt that “Bowers had the capacity to form the intent to kill.”

Dr. Park Dietz cited Bowers’ “organized, goal-directed thoughts and behavior before, during and after the attack,” local broadcaster WTAE reported. Asked by a prosecuting attorney whether Bowers believed his murder of Jews was justified, Dietz replied in the affirmative, arguing that the atrocity was the consequence of a “cultural white supremacist belief system he shares with others.”

Dietz also reported that Bowers had displayed no remorse for the atrocity, saying: “They can kill me if they want, but the score was 11-1.”

The Secure Community Network (SCN), a security organization serving the US Jewish community, welcomed the verdict, saying that it sent a “message to violent extremists, terrorists, and antisemites everywhere that the United States will not tolerate hate and violence against the Jewish people, nor any people of faith.”

The SCN added that “today, we join the victims’ families, Greater Pittsburgh, and the Jewish community across the country and the world in reading the fateful final sentence in one chapter that has finally come to a close.”

Separately, the family of 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, who was killed in the attack, and her daughter, Andrea Wedner, who was shot and wounded, thanked the jurors and asserted that “a measure of justice has been served.”

“Returning a sentence of death is not a decision that comes easy, but we must hold accountable those who wish to commit such terrible acts of antisemitism, hate, and violence,” the family said in a written statement.

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