The man convicted of killing 11 Jewish worshipers and wounding six other people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October 2018 will be formally sentenced to death Thursday morning.
The 9 a.m. sentencing hearing comes less than 24 hours after a federal jury handed down its verdict, condemning Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, to death.
The same jury found Bowers guilty on 63 federal counts in June, including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death. Of those, 22 counts carried the possibility of the death penalty.
Last month, jurors deemed Bowers eligible for the death penalty.
The hearing on Thursday — during which survivors and victims’ family members will be allowed to provide statements before the court — concludes a two-month trial that began nearly five years after the commission of the crime.
Speaking to media representatives a few hours after the verdict was delivered on Wednesday afternoon, survivor Audrey Glickman — who testified during the trial that she survived the attack by covering herself with her prayer shawl — acknowledged the conclusion of the process has been a long time coming. But she reiterated why many survivors and members of the impacted congregations advocated that federal prosecutors pursue a trial as opposed to a plea bargain with Bowers.
“It's been difficult being silent about the case for all these years, as we were advised,” she said. “Listening to pundits debating each other without all the facts. Had we not had this trial, the deeds of this criminal would have been glossed over in the annals of history. We now know almost the full story.”
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting remains the deadliest antisemitic assault in U.S. history.
The victims killed by Bowers included Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, brothers Cecil Rosenthal and David Rosenthal, husband and wife Sylvan and Bernice Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger.
They belonged to three congregations that worshiped at the Tree of Life synagogue: Congregation Dor Hadash, New Light Congregation and Tree of Life / Or L'Simcha.
