Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter’s Prosecution: Death Sentence Announced

Andrea Wedner, whose mother, 97, was slain in the shooting, believes that the mass shooter is a useless, pitiful person.

Andrea Wedner, whose mother was one of the victims, described the mass shooter as “worthless” and a “pathetic human being.” (Photo: CNN)

Dozen individuals spoke in federal court

Carol Black yelled out Richard Gottfried’s name and expressed shame over the fact that she managed to live while being hidden in a dark closet but her brother did not.

Additionally, Mark Simon, whose parents were assassinated, claimed that his mother’s blood-stained wedding pearls continue to torment him but that he still can’t bear to part with them.

Simon stated that the suspect’s sick, disgusting, and abhorrent actions had completely and permanently removed you from society and humanity.

In a report from CNN, three of the roughly two dozen individuals who spoke in federal court on Thursday on the effects of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, which was the worst attack on Jews in American history, were Wedner, Black, and Simon.

For all of their claims, the shooter, 50-year-old Robert Bowers, did not look up from a piece of paper. Judge Robert Colville then officially condemned him to death on 22 offenses involving the death penalty, 37 life sentences, and 20 years on each of four more counts.

READ ALSO: A Closer Look At Jury’s Decisions On 1st Day Of Deliberations For Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter

Federal jury unanimously decided to execute Bowers

The trial was held the day after a federal jury unanimously decided to execute Bowers. Under the Biden administration, which has a moratorium on executions, it is the first federal death sentence.

In an article from FOX 55, the sentencing serves as the climax of a horrible story that started on October 27, 2018, when Bowers stormed the Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire inside with an AR-15-style rifle. Six other persons, including four responding police officers, were hurt in addition to the eleven fatalities.

Gottfried, 65, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, 84 and 86, Irving Younger, 69, Melvin Wax, 87, Rose Mallinger, 97, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, Joyce Fienberg, 75, Daniel Stein, 71, and Cecil and David Rosenthal, 59 and 54, were also among those killed.

Bowers’ defense asserted that he had mental illness and delusions, but the jury rejected those claims in passing sentence. Prosecutors claimed the precise, well-planned shooting was driven by Bowers’ hatred of Jews, immigrants, and especially the nonprofit Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

The New Light Congregation’s leaders recognized that many of their members would prefer the shooter to spend the rest of his life in jail than to be put to death. But co-presidents Stephen Cohen and Barbara Caplan supported the prosecution’s course of action.

READ ALSO: Pittsburgh Synagogue Mass Shooter Trial Begins; Jury To Decide On Death Penalty