3 years after Pittsburgh synagogue attack, trial still ahead

PITTSBURGH — As the three-year mark since the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue approaches, survivors are planning now-familiar annual rituals of remembrance, the criminal case involving the suspect plods on, and the site is in line for restoration. I can only say for myself, I will always be healing.” The pandemic has also caused delays and logistical challenges in the federal capital murder case against Bowers, a former truck driver whose statements that day and trail of online posts suggest he was consumed by hatred for Jewish people when, authorities say, he launched the attack. In 2019, Bowers’ lawyers told Ambrose “this case would already be over — and interests in a speedy resolution vindicated — had the government accepted the defendant’s offer to plead guilty as charged and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.” Under then-President Donald Trump, the Justice Department pursued the killings as a death penalty case. Dave Freed, a former U.S. attorney in Harrisburg, called three years an unusually long period between arrest and trial for any criminal case, but said the intense public interest in the synagogue shooting and the potential death penalty both put added pressure on lawyers to get it right. “I think you have to add COVID to mix — I’m sure it’s contributed,” said Freed, who did not have a role in the Tree of Life case when he worked for the Justice Department.