Monster convicted, hopefully residence in Butler County coming to close
Since his arrest for the massacre of 11 innocent souls at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, the hatred-filled heart of Robert Bowers has been beating day and night at the Butler County Prison.
On Friday, county sheriffs loaded their prisoner into an official van and transported him to federal court in Pittsburgh, where he was convicted of all 63 crimes brought against him.
His attorneys conceded the case, meaning they did not offer evidence in Bowers’ defense.
According to the Associated Press story in the Eagle’s Sunday edition that detailed his crime and conviction, Bowers, 50, “had little reaction” to hearing the word “guilty” over and over.
Relatives and friends of those killed or injured by Bowers’ shooting rampage remained dignified in their sorrow, as only sniffles could be heard in the courtroom.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation, who survived the attack, sent a written statement to be read in the courtroom that — instead of understandably disparaging the cold-blooded killer — expressed gratitude to the law enforcement who ran into danger to rescue himself and others, as well as for the U.S. Attorney who defended in court his right to pray.
Now the decision must be made whether to go for the death penalty or settle for life imprisonment for the rabidly antisemitic defendant, whose detestation of Jewish people is so intense that he saw fit to destroy countless lives in the synagogue, including his own.
Knowing a monster capable of the atrocities he perpetrated on his victims is housed in the local prison, warm, clean and fed, has been an unsettling reality for many county residents. But now that Bowers has been convicted, he will eventually leave his small cocoon in Butler for what will likely be a much more difficult and daunting federal prison.
No matter how egregious the conditions of his new accommodations will prove to be, it surely cannot compare to the terror, pain and suffering of those he mercilessly gunned down and their loved ones.
The Eagle will wish good riddance when it is Bowers’ time to depart our beloved county for the final time, and hopes those he so callously wounded, physically or emotionally, will somehow find the healing they deserve.
— PG
