Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s motion for new trial denied
Judge: “Defendant planned his attack for months, espoused repugnant beliefs about Jews and Judaism on the internet and eventually told those arresting him ‘that all Jews need to die.’"
Federal Judge Robert Colville today rejected a motion for acquittal and for a new trial filed by the man convicted of killing 11 worshippers in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018. The shooter was found guilty in June on all 63 counts against him, including federal hate crimes. In August, a unanimous jury recommended, and the court imposed, the death penalty.
The shooter murdered members of three congregations: Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha. Those killed were Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger.
Congregants Andrea Wedner and Daniel Leger were seriously wounded, as were several police officers.
In his motion for acquittal and a new trial, filed in November, the defendant argued that the government did not present sufficient evidence to establish that he specifically intended to obstruct each victim’s right to the free enjoyment of religion.
The court rejected that argument, writing: “Defendant planned his attack for months, espoused repugnant beliefs about Jews and Judaism on the internet and eventually told those arresting him ‘that all Jews need to die.’ The Government has effectively summarized [in its brief] the evidence introduced at trial as to the Defendant’s intent on the day in question.
“It is beyond question that the Jury was presented with sufficient evidence to support its finding beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant specifically intended to obstruct each victim in the enjoyment of that victim’s free exercise of religious beliefs on October 27, 2018.”
The defense also argued that some of the prospective jurors dismissed during the selection process were improperly rejected because of their race. The shooter’s attorneys wrote in their motion that they did not have enough time to properly challenge those prospective jurors’ exclusion.
Colville rejected that argument, writing that the government had already provided to the court “race-neutral bases for its peremptory strikes,” that “those bases were credible,” and that the defendant “has come up well short of his burden of establishing purposeful discrimination.”
Defendant will most likely file an appeal in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on these same issues. Appeals are standard in death penalty cases. PJC
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