In a small nondescript courtroom on the fifth floor of the federal courthouse in Downtown Pittsburgh on Tuesday, a case that has loomed in Pittsburgh’s background for nearly five years will finally begin.
Testimony will begin around 9 a.m. in the case against Robert Bowers, the man accused of gunning down 11 Jewish worshippers inside a Squirrel Hill synagogue in 2018.
It remains the worst antisemitic attack on U.S. soil.
The criminal justice system ground on slowly in this case — one which has been marred by arguments and bickering among prosecutors and defense attorneys, slowed by a global pandemic, and checkered with numerous attempts to get the death penalty taken off the table.
The Oct. 27, 2018, shooting devastated both the close-knit Jewish community in Squirrel Hill and the city at large. It inextricably linked three congregations who continue the balance between never forgetting and moving forward.
The synagogue housed three different congregations — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life or L’Simcha. The latter congregation owned the building, and its name is written in English and Hebrew on the north wall.
“Tree of Life” became the grim moniker for the massacre, and the 11 congregants killed there became the faces of the nation’s worst antisemitic attack: Richard Gottfried, Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, David and Cecil Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger.
Mr. Bowers, 50, faces 63 federal charges in connection with the mass shooting, including hate crime-related counts. He could face the death penalty if he is convicted.
Experts have said that this is a case in which there is little debate surrounding what happened and who is responsible, as Mr. Bowers has tried to plead guilty. The only real question is whether Mr. Bowers will be sentenced to die, and it will be the job of his lead defense attorney, Judy Clarke, to humanize him for the jurors.
Seating a jury was not a simple process.
Interviews with potential jurors began April 24, and it took 17 days to reach a pool of 69 from which to select a jury. The court initially sent out 1,500 summonses to residents of Allegheny and a dozen other Western Pennsylvania counties. Attorneys questioned more than 200 of them before they reached that pool of 69.
On Thursday, attorneys on both sides used their 20 peremptory strikes — the process of removing a juror from consideration without giving a reason. The end result was 12 jurors and six alternates. The jurors will not know who is an alternate until deliberations begin.
There are 11 women and seven men. They include an ICU nurse and paralegal, Catholics and a Protestant, a new father and a military veteran.
The selection process involved intense questioning surrounding prospective jurors’ ability to impose the death penalty if they felt the circumstances called for it.
They also had to be able to give up at least two months of their lives: The guilt phase of the trial is expected to last three weeks, while sentencing could take up to six weeks.
Though no witness list has been released, those most touched by the tragedy will likely be called to testify — survivors wounded physically, mentally or both, police who took on gunfire and tactical medics who rescued those they could.
The synagogue itself remains vacant, an unintended memorial at the intersection of Wilkins and Shady avenues. Its future, though, remains one of hope.
The building will be demolished, and in its place will be a large new building that includes space for a memorial and museum, education rooms and more. It will also house the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Architect Daniel Libeskind has been tapped to design the new space. His work has included the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the 9/11 memorial at the World Trade Center site. He is the son of Holocaust survivors.
Fundraising efforts continue and ground has not been broken, but congregants from Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life gathered outside of their former synagogue last month to say l’hitraot, or “farewell for now.”
“We do not say ‘shalom’ because there is a finality to that word,” Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers said at the time. “Instead, we say ‘see you later,’ knowing that we will return.”
First Published: May 28, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 30, 2023, 9:47 a.m.