3 years after Pittsburgh synagogue attack, trial still ahead – KXAN Austin
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PITTSBURGH (AP) – As the three years after the Tree of Life synagogue massacre draw near, survivors are now planning familiar annual memorial rituals, criminal proceedings against the suspect continue, and the site is close to restoration.
The Grade II listed synagogue in Pittsburgh’s leafy Squirrel Hill neighborhood is dormant, but a renowned architect is working to remodel the site where 11 people were killed in America’s deadliest anti-Semitic attacks.
There is no trial date in sight for the suspect Robert G. Bowers. There is also no indication that the US Department of Justice is responding to calls from some members of the attacked communities to stave off a trial by dropping its call for a death penalty and accepting a life sentence guilty plea.
In the coming days, members of the three wards whose Sabbath services were held on October 27, 2018, will join forces with supporters to quietly pay tribute, gather for community service, and study the Torah.
And on Wednesday afternoon, three years to the day since the shooting, they will gather for an outdoor memorial service in Schenley Park, between 11 trees that were planted there to commemorate those who were murdered.
“People are having a really hard time in this COVID era,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10:27 Healing Partnership, which was founded to help those affected by synagogue shots and hate crimes. The goal this year was to “get together safely. It’s been a long way not to be. “
Bowers’ attorneys and prosecutors were in a Pittsburgh courtroom this month to discuss whether incriminating statements he made at the crime scene could be used against him.
Some members of the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light ward say their grief has been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic because it has further isolated them from each other and from personal worship.
Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the attack, said the double trauma left the community in various stages of recovery.
“There are some who say they are healed,” he said. “If that’s the case, I’ll say thank god. I can only say for myself, I will always heal. “
The pandemic has also created delays and logistical challenges in the federal capital’s murder case against Bowers, a former truck driver whose testimony that day and trail of online posts suggest he was engulfed in hatred of Jewish people when he launched the attack according to the authorities started.
Bowers, 49, has avoided public speaking behind bars as his legal team fought to prevent his execution and even offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
US District Judge Donetta Ambrose sealed about 100 of the 600 or so file entries in the case, restricting how much the public can learn about the trial. Acting U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, Stephen R. Kaufman, declined to comment on the article, and Bowers’ legal department did not respond to news.
Bowers, armed with an assault rifle and three handguns, is charged with shooting 18 people and exchanging shots with officials, shooting him three times before being taken into police custody. His social media story included posts about a false conspiracy theory that the Holocaust was a hoax and expressed his contempt for a nonprofit Jewish group that helps refugees.
In 2019, Bowers’ lawyers told Ambrose: “This case would be closed – and interest in a speedy resolution confirmed – if the government had accepted the defendant’s offer to plead guilty as charged and to life imprisonment with no release.” to be condemned.
Under then President Donald Trump, the Justice Department prosecuted the murders as a death penalty. But in July, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a moratorium on federal executions while his agency reviews policies and procedures, adding to uncertainty. Prosecutors continue to treat it as a capital case, but it’s unclear what would happen to Bowers if convicted.
For the past two years, the defense and prosecutors have argued over evidence, search warrants and legal proceedings, as well as the impact of the pandemic on Bowers’ right to a fair trial. The defense team insisted on safe conditions and expressed concern about the risk of travel, while the U.S. Attorney General complained about delaying tactics.
Dave Freed, a former US attorney in Harrisburg, described three years as an unusually long time between arrest and trial for any criminal trial, but said the strong public interest in the synagogue shooting and the possible death penalty both put additional pressure on lawyers, she said to get right.
“I think you have to add COVID to mix up – I’m sure it helped,” said Freed, who played no role in the Tree of Life case when he worked for the Justice Department.
Some members of the three parishes want the Justice Department to strike the deal that would save Bower’s life.
Dor Hadash, as the municipality, has called on Garland to end the prosecution of the death penalty. Individual members of New Light are also against a possible death sentence.
The author Beth Kissileff pushed for religious reasons against the death penalty and because a plea would save survivors the trauma of a trial. Her husband, New Light Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, survived the shooting.
“As angry as I am that the lives of our friends and parishioners have been brutally ended, it is God’s responsibility, not ours, to avenge their deaths,” she wrote on the Jewish news site The Forward.
Kissileff said she was encouraged by President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to support federal death penalty legislation and to encourage states to do the same. It is also encouraged by the moratorium imposed by Garland.
Survivors said they understand that capital falls are long and that the pandemic made them last longer, but they want to get it over with.
“We want to get on with our lives and we want to get this over with,” said Carol Black, who survived the attack by hiding in a storage room.
Survivors are also stepping up their efforts to combat violent extremism. Speakers at a three-day global summit on the Eradicate of Hate held in Pittsburgh this week included experts alongside survivors and victims’ families.
The Tree of Life congregation has now commissioned the architect Daniel Libeskind, the master planner for the reconstruction of the New York World Trade Center, to redesign the extensive synagogue complex that will share the space with the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh. The aim is to create a solemn memorial and a place for regular activity.
“We’re all excited to see the potential of what the leading architect of his generation could come up with at Tree of Life,” said Myers.
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Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press religious coverage is supported by the Lilly Foundation through The Conversation US. AP is solely responsible for this content.
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