On the Shabbat of October 27, 2018, a white supremacist stormed into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and killed 11 elderly Jewish people, resulting in what is considered the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. Five years later, the verdict came: a federal jury, made up of 12 jurors, pronounced the death sentence for Robert Bowers, now 50.
He didn’t apologize or express regret for what he did, instead his lawyers tried to argue that he had a difficult and traumatic childhood, tried to kill himself as a teenager and suffered from schizophrenia. But the jurors didn’t flinch. They confirmed again the 63 criminal counts he was convicted on five years ago and they delivered the verdict in under 10 hours of deliberation.
Before committing this hateful massacre, he announced on his social media what he was about to do, as a manifesto: “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in”. He went to one of the largest and most historic Jewish communities in the US, while members of three congregations had gathered for Shabbat worship and study, with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns. And then opened fire. In addition to the 11 people he killed, he wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers.
Despite the possible and unnecessary trauma this trial could involve, the family of two victims, Rose Mallinger, a 97-year-old who was killed in the attack, and Andrea Wedner, her daughter, who was wounded , released a statement to thank the jury.
“Although we will never attain closure from the loss of our beloved Rose Mallinger, we now feel a measure of justice has been served”.
