GUILTY June 23, 2023 | 4 Tammuz 5783
Candlelighting 8:36 p.m. | Havdalah 9:44 p.m. | Vol. 66, No. 25 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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Pittsburgh synagogue shooter guilty on all 63 counts ‘There has to be a record’: Community reacts to synagogue shooter’s guilty verdict By Chronicle Staff and Union Progress Staff
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ore than 4½ years after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre that left 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life building dead, a jury found the shooter guilty of all 63 counts filed against him. With the conclusion of the guilt phase of the trial, the jury will now consider whether the shooter is eligible for the death penalty. At approximately noon last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Colville read the 63 separate federal counts against the defendant and the jury’s verdict. The shooter sat quietly, facing forward and showing no emotion as he was found guilty on all charges, including 11 counts of obstruction of the free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, which carries the death penalty as a possible sentence. The defense team asked the jurors to be polled when the judge completed reading the results, and all stated that they agreed with the verdicts as they were read. After a trial that lasted 13 days and that often featured heart-rending testimony, audio recordings and photos, the jury deliberated for about five hours before returning its unanimous guilty verdict. Only one clarifying question was asked by the jury during deliberations, regarding
By Andrew Goldstein and Harrison Hamm | Contributing Writers
After deliberation, Colville responded that he could not answer the question for the jury, and instead, referred them to page 55 of his original instructions. The shooter’s legal team offered little in way of a defense during the trial, focusing its opening statement and closing argument on trying to distance the shooter from the obstruction of religion charges — the charges which carry the possibility of the death penalty. Despite not convincing the jury of that argument during the guilt phase of the trial, the defense team almost certainly will Please see Trial, page 10
Please see Reaction, page 11
p Alan Hausman, president of the Tree of Life Congregation, and Barbara Caplan, co-president of New Light Congregation, hug after a news conference after the jury found the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter guilty of federal hate crimes on Friday, June 16.
Photo by Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Union Progress
charges 40-47 and the intent to kill the eight survivors who were in the building at the time of the attack but not physically injured: Carol Black, Joseph Charny, Martin Gaynor, Audrey Glickman, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, Stephen Weiss and Barry Werber. The jury inquired if the shooter had to have known or seen each person who was in the building to satisfy the requirement that he had the intent to kill them. Colville debated the matter with the defense team, asking: If a person planted a bomb in a random car, would that show intent to kill? The defense argued it would not show intent to kill a specific person.
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he highly anticipated but long-awaited guilty verdict last Friday of the gunman in the 2018 mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue — the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history — drew swift reaction from the Jewish community and civic leaders in Pittsburgh and around the world. At a news conference held a block away from Pittsburgh’s federal courthouse and in statements from around the world, community leaders praised the strength and courage of the survivors who testified, and encouraged community members to take care of themselves as old wounds are reopened. “We’re happy this first phase is beyond us,” Jeff Finkelstein, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told reporters at the Pennsylvanian apartments portico in Downtown. “While we’re pleased with the verdict, we know there is still more to come.” The federal jury found the defendant guilty on
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