Judge denies motion to prohibit death penalty in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting case

The federal judge presiding over the trial of the man accused of killing 11 people at a Squirrel Hill synagogue denied a motion by the defense requesting to stop the government from seeking the death penalty against their client.

Defense attorneys for Robert Bowers, 50, of Baldwin, accused the U.S. Department of Justice in a motion last month of arbitrarily choosing how it pursues capital punishment, saying that it chose not to seek death in other cases similar to his.

But in his 11-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Robert Colville wrote that the defense “fails entirely” to show the government’s decision to pursue death against Bowers was arbitrary.

“(The defense) also fails entirely to show any evidence of, or advance any argument regarding, discriminatory intent on the part of the prosecutors in this case,” he wrote.

Bowers is accused of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. They included Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Irving Younger, 69; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; Richard Gottfried, 65; and Rose Mallinger, 97.

Jury selection began on April 24. Through Tuesday, 108 people had been interviewed. Of those, 36 are potentially eligible to serve.

In their motion filed last month, attorneys for Bowers said that the Justice Department chose not to seek capital punishment against a man who targeted Hispanic people and killed 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart.

In his opinion, Colville wrote that just because the government has chosen not to pursue death in a similar case does not mean its determination was arbitrary.

He said Bowers’ attorneys failed to provide any evidence of that.

“The court agrees that defendant’s attempt to analogize his case to others based on the number of victims or the motive for the murders involves a gross over-simplification of the variables at hand,” Colville wrote.

The judge also noted that the government did seek capital punishment — and obtained a death verdict — against Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine people in a South Carolina church in 2015.

In its motion, the defense also alleged that when it rejected a request from the government to interview Bowers and have him undergo a psychiatric evaluation, the prosecution said it would not withdraw its notice to seek death.

Again, Colville found no merit in that claim, writing that the defense provided no basis to support it.

The defense also argued in its motion that Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has reversed multiple death penalty decisions and declared a moratorium on the federal death penalty while the Justice Department reviews its policies and procedures, should have been involved in the review of Bowers’ case but was not.

Colville disagreed. He cited the DOJ manual on the issue, writing that it “simply provides that the decision of whether to pursue the death penalty rests with ‘the attorney for the government,’ not any specific attorney.”