Majority of victims' families in Tree of Life shooting case want death penalty

The sisters of two of the men killed in the mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue in 2018 said on Friday that they believe the man responsible should be put to death.

Diane and Michele Rosenthal hosted a brief video meeting with members of the media to correct what they called a “prevalent misconception” that many of the family members of the 11 people killed in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building do not wish for capital punishment. Their brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, were among those killed.

The trial of Robert Bowers, who faces 63 federal charges in the case, is scheduled to start with jury selection on April 24.

“This massacre was not just a mass murder of innocent citizens during the service in a house of worship. It was an antisemitic hate crime,” said Diane Rosenthal. “The death penalty must apply to vindicate justice and to offer some measure of deterrence from horrific hate crimes happening again and again.”

While they were speaking on their own behalf, the Rosenthals referenced a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 in which seven of the nine families who lost a loved one urged the Department of Justice to seek death against Bowers.

In the letter dated July 2, 2021, they wrote that anything other than death “would be a grave injustice as well as a disservice to the lives, legacies and memories of our deceased family members and to us, the immediate victim-family members that live this nightmare each and every day.”

“Additionally, we do NOT support any form of plea bargain in this case,” the letter said. “Proper justice is not about seeking revenge or retribution. Our great losses can never be repaired or remedied.”

It was signed by the families of Bernice and Sylvan Simon; Cecil and David Rosenthal; Daniel Stein; Richard Gottfried; Rose Mallinger; Joyce Fienberg and Melvin Wax.

The families of Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz and Irving Younger did not sign it.

In their comments Friday, the Rosenthal sisters said that comments in the media that the victims’ families are opposed to death “have not come from the families affected.”

“Instead, they’ve come from individuals of the congregations, elected officials and others who think they know what’s best for the families,” Diane Rosenthal said. “We don’t want to be here. And we know the emotional toll this trial potentially brings. But we owe it to our brothers, Cecil and David, the suggestion that all the family members of the deceased victims do not wish to proceed with a death penalty case is false.”

Michele Rosenthal criticized suggestions in the media that family members should be relieved of the stress of trial or of a cost-benefit analysis showing a trial is not necessary as “offensive.

“This plays right into the hands of the ongoing transparent strategy by the defense to delay in hopes of achieving this result,” she said. “Our family has suffered long and hard over the last four and a half years.

“We don’t want to have to continue to defend ourselves and our position. We want justice.”