Jury set for Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial

The people who will determine if Robert Bowers lives or dies include a Catholic and a Protestant, an ICU nurse, a real estate manager, a paralegal, a postal worker, a parole board employee, an event manager and a brand-new father.

They are among the 11 women and seven men who were seated Thursday to hear the case against Bowers, accused of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue more than 4-1/2 years ago.

The panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was chosen following a lengthy but unsuccessful challenge by defense attorneys of the government’s use of peremptory strikes.

All but one juror is white. The other is a woman who was born in China. The jurors will not know who will deliberate or who will serve as alternates.

Testimony in the case is scheduled to begin on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville.

The guilt phase is expected to last three weeks, and sentencing is expected to take six weeks. The government is seeking the death penalty.

Bowers, 50, of Baldwin is charged with 63 federal counts, including that he killed the victims as they worshipped.

The victims were members of three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue at Wilkins and Shady avenues in Squirrel Hill: Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light.

Killed in the attack were 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.

Two additional congregants were wounded, and five police officers were injured, including four by gunfire.

Jury selection began on April 24. Over 17 days, the parties interviewed 214 prospective jurors out of an initial pool of 1,500 people who were asked to fill out lengthy questionnaires in March.

Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, spoke briefly outside the federal courthouse this afternoon as jury selection in the Robert Bowers trial nears conclusion. pic.twitter.com/TxA0C1kWnn

— Paula Reed Ward (@PaulaReedWard) May 25, 2023

About 100 people who reported for questioning were dismissed based on hardships, and the final pool of those eligible to serve was set at 69.

Of those deemed eligible, the vast majority — 62 people — were white.

On Thursday, Colville brought those in the pool to his eighth-floor courtroom to briefly thank them for their service.

One man who reported told the court that his pregnant wife was being induced that morning and asked if he could leave. Colville granted the request. He was later selected to the jury.

The judge praised the prospective jurors.

“It says an awful lot about who you are as a person and who you are as a citizen,” he said.

The judge then released the pool to a holding room, while the parties exercised their peremptory challenges.

The process was anticlimactic, as each side simply passed a sheet back and forth to each other, striking one person at a time. In a federal capital case, each side gets 20 challenges.

Bowers, like he’s done throughout jury selection, sat at counsel table, talking quietly with First Assistant Public Defender Michael Novara and the other members of the defense team.

The striking process took about an hour and 20 minutes. After that, the defense raised several unsuccessful challenges to the government’s strikes, noting that the prosecution eliminated all four Black people in the panel, the one Hispanic person and the one Jewish person. Prospective jurors may not be stricken based on race, ethnicity or gender.

Defense attorney Elisa Long told Colville that she believed an “inference of discrimination may be drawn” by how the government used its strikes and that having jurors who were willing to impose death disproportionately removed Black and Hispanic jurors from the pool. She also asked for additional time for the defense to prepare argument on the strikes.

“Mr. Bowers’ life is on the line,” Long said. “We don’t see prejudice to the government.”

The judge denied the request for additional time.

In responding to the defense allegations, attorney Mary Hahn of the U.S. Department of Justice listed reasons for each of the jurors that the prosecution challenged, explaining why prosecutors believed they had a race-neutral reason that each person should not be on the panel.

Hahn explained that the government struck every prospective juror who ranked themselves a 3 or lower on the death penalty scale (from 1, strongly opposed, to 10, strongly in favor), and most of the people who ranked themselves a 4.

Regarding the Hispanic prospective juror, Hahn said the woman repeatedly expressed reluctance to impose a death sentence and also had a unique knowledge of neuroscience, based on her occupation.

Addressing the challenge to the prospective juror who is Jewish, Hahn said the woman was not a practicing Jew and the government struck her after learning she had sent an unsolicited email to the clerk’s office describing anxiety she had been experiencing at the prospect of being chosen.

Regarding the four Black prospective jurors stricken by the government, Hahn said one of them failed to appear in court for jury selection Thursday, making him unreliable for such a lengthy trial.

A second Black juror had hesitation to impose the death penalty, saying during questioning, “’The death penalty is too final,’” and “‘All human life is important,’” according to Hahn.

Prosecutors thought that woman had a “gravitas” and strong leadership skills.

“She was someone we thought would have a lot of influence in the jury room,” Hahn said.

After listening to the parties’ arguments, Colville ruled against the defense, finding that the government had offered sufficient justification as to why it struck those particular prospective jurors outside of race, ethnicity or religion.

Even so, Colville said, “I am personally and profoundly disappointed this jury, outwardly, will not fully represent the diversity of our community in the Western District of Pennsylvania.”