Shooting in Pittsburgh: Perpetrator of the worst anti-Semitic attack in the United States sentenced to death

The perpetrator of the 2018 armed attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, was sentenced to death by a federal jury on Wednesday, according to US media reports. Twelve jurors unanimously voted in favor of the death penalty for Robert Bowers, according to the media. This white driver was found guilty of 11 murders, aggravated as an anti-Semitic act, on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

That verdict must then be formally handed down by a federal judge. However, since the Justice Department has placed a moratorium on federal executions, this sentence cannot be carried out.

On October 27, 2018, he broke into a Pittsburgh synagogue armed with three pistols and a semi-automatic rifle. Shouting “all Jews must die,” he opened fire and killed 11 people, including a 97-year-old believer, in the midst of Shabbat ceremonies in Pittsburgh’s historic Jewish neighborhood, in the deadliest attack on Jews in the UNITED STATES. Prior to that, he posted racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages on a far-right social network.

“Lack of remorse”

The issue of the death penalty was central to this case. Back in 2019, a Pittsburgh federal prosecutor warned that he would seek the death penalty for the murderer, citing his “lack of remorse” and “hatred and contempt” for Jews. Then-Republican President Donald Trump sought the death penalty for Bowers, a request followed by the Justice Department and confirmed after Democratic President Joe Biden’s term began on January 20, 2021. But although candidate Biden promised to abolish the death penalty in 2020. At the national level, this lawsuit revives the debate in the United States around this capital punishment, which is still practiced in many American states.

The trial came amid a surge in racist and anti-Semitic activity in the US, which has reached its highest level in 30 years, according to FBI federal police statistics released in April by the Washington Post.

According to the Anti Defamation League, an American anti-Semitism organization, in 2021, a record number of anti-Semitic acts were recorded in the country – 2717 (attacks, verbal attacks, property damage, etc.), which is 34% more than a year. The association counted 3,697 anti-Semitic acts in 2022 (up 36% for the year), the most since 1979, according to the Washington Post.