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USA - Pittsburgh synagogue requests no death penalty for Robert Bowers
June 25, 2021: Pittsburgh synagogue requests no death penalty for Robert Bowers, killer of their members
The president of Congregation Dor Hadash, Bruce Herschlag, made the request of US Attorney General Merrick Garland in a letter sent last week, the WESA radio station reported Friday.
Don’t give the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman the death penalty.
That’s the request of one of the congregations based in the building targeted by the white supremacist who killed 11 worshippers in a 2018 attack.
Garland is Jewish.
Justice in the ongoing trial of Robert Bowers, 49, should be achieved “in a manner that is both consistent with our religious values and that spares us from the painful ordeal of prolonged legal maneuvering,” Herschlag wrote in the June 17 letter.
“The imposition of multiple life sentences would ensure that the perpetrator is never released. This is the outcome we desire.”
Bowers, now 49, white, is on trial for killing 11 people in the Pittsburgh synagogue on October 27, 2018, and injuring many more. It was the bloodiest anti-Semitic attack on American soil.
It is not the first time that Jewish congregations have publicly taken a stand against Bowers' death sentence. As HoC reported, on November 2, 2018, it was the rabbis of the three major Jewish associations who approached both the state and federal attorney general.
And on August 16, 2019, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the New Light Congregation and President Donna Coufal of the Dor Hadash Congregation made a similar intervention. Today, when Bruce Herschlag presides over the Dor Hadash Congregation, the intervention was repeated.
https://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2021/06/usa-pittsburgh-synagogue-requests-no.html (Source: jpost.com, June 25, 2021)
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