Judge denies Pittsburgh synagogue shooter's request for new trial

A federal judge on Friday denied a request for a new trial filed by the man convicted of killing 11 people at a Squirrel Hill synagogue more than five years ago.

U.S. District Judge Robert Colville used the terms “entirely baseless” and “meritless” when describing arguments from defense lawyers.

Robert Bowers, 51, is on federal death row after having been convicted of 63 counts in a lengthy jury trial last summer in the Oct. 27, 2018, attack at the Tree of Life synagogue at Wilkins and Shady avenues.

The victims included Rose Mallinger, 97; Bernice Simon, 84, and her husband, Sylvan Simon, 86; brothers David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59; Dan Stein, 71; Irving Younger, 69; Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; Joyce Fienberg, 75; Melvin Wax, 87; and Richard Gottfried, 65.

They were members of the Tree of Life-Or L’Simcha, Dor Hadash and New Light congregations.

In November, attorneys for Bowers filed a motion for judgment of acquittal and new trial asserting a number of claims, including that the federal hate crime used to prosecute him does not apply to religion; that there was insufficient evidence to show he specifically set out to obstruct the victims’ religious freedom and that the racial makeup of the jury was improper.

In his 26-page opinion on Friday, Colville dismissed all of those arguments.

Regarding the claim that the government failed to show Bowers set out to disrupt the victims’ right to religious freedom, Colville said it was “beyond question” that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence.

“Again, defendant, who over a prolonged period repeatedly and consistently espoused profuse disdain and hatred toward Judaism and Jews and who further expressed his support of violence against Jews, walked into a Jewish place of worship on a day of worship, knowing that services would be held that day, and opened fire on each and every Jewish worshipper he came across.”

Colville called the argument “entirely baseless.”

The judge found the same regarding Bowers’ claim that the hate crimes act doesn’t apply to religion.

On Bowers’ claims regarding race, Colville wrote that the government proffered race-neutral bases for striking the jurors in question, and that the defense failed to establish any pretext.

“Defendant’s motion is meritless,” Colville wrote. “Even after five months, the court finds that defendant has come up well short of his burden of establishing purposeful discrimination.”

Bowers was sentenced to death on Aug. 3. He arrived on death row at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., 22 days later.