Tree of Life synagogue shooter is too delusional to get death penalty, defence argues

Prosecutors say shooter showed meticulous planning

Jurors in Pittsburgh have begun considering whether the gunman in a white supremacist 2018 shooting at a local synagogue complex should get the death penalty.

In June, Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue, was convicted on 63 federal counts.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, experts called by his attorneys have been arguing in court in recent days that he was so mentally damaged by the time of the shooting he shouldn’t face the death penalty, which is forbidden against people with certain intellectual handicaps.

They pointed out how Bowers had been in multiple psychiatric hospitals by the time he was 13 years old, diagnosed with depression and other ailments.

As a teenager, he also attempted to kill his mother by spraying an aerosol toward her and trying to light it on fire.

Robert Bowers (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

By 16, he was voluntarily committed again to a mental facility and had made “repeated suicide attempts,” according to the defence.

Richard Rogers, a forensic psychologist who met with Bowers four times while he was in prison, told jurors the gunman showed signs of delusional thinking tied to his white supremacist ideas.

“He did not just believe [his conduct] to be correct,” Mr Rogers said, “he believed it absolutely had to be done.”

A majority of families whose loved ones died in the shooting have voiced their support for the death penalty in the case.

“We are not a ruthless, uncompassionate people; we, as a persecuted people, understand when there is a time for compassion and when there is a time to stand up and say enough is enough — such violent hatred will not be tolerated on this earth,” they wrote in a 2022 letter in the Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle. “Our beloved 11 were taken from us in a brutal, cold-blooded act of hatred and violence. We, the undersigned, will feel further violated by letting the defendant have the easy way out. His crimes deserve the death penalty.”

Others tied to the tragedy, the deadliest antisemitic shooting in US history, argued the death penalty violates Jewish tradition.

“Jewish practice as I understand it does not — outside of self-defense — allow humans to take the lives of other humans. Not even the life of a murderer whose guilt is beyond doubt,” Beth Kissileff, whose husband, a rabbi, was in the Tree of Life facility during the shooting, wrote in The New York Times.

“The death penalty does nothing to promote healing; it only continues more killing,” she added.

The Independent and the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) have launched a joint campaign calling for an end to the death penalty in the US. The RBIJ has attracted more than 150 well-known signatories to their Business Leaders Declaration Against the Death Penalty - with The Independent as the latest on the list. We join high-profile executives like Ariana Huffington, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson as part of this initiative and are making a pledge to highlight the injustices of the death penalty in our coverage.