Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial verdict: What happens next with the death penalty
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Now that the jury has voted to impose the death penalty, Robert Bowers will likely be headed to the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, more commonly known as federal death row.
Of the 43 federal prisoners sentenced to death in this country, 42 are being held in Terre Haute without possibility of release, each spending their days alone in a 12-by-7 foot, single-inmate cell, waiting.
Outside the prison walls, stands a small single-story building housing the death chamber with execution table and restraints. In the last six months of the Trump administration, the government executed 13 prisoners there by lethal injection.
None have been put to death under President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland has instituted a moratorium but that could change.
"It could change under a new president, very easily," said law professor Bruce Antkowiak.
As they wait, each prisoner has a TV, but no internet. They're allowed out of the cell for two hours each day, but can have no contact with other inmates. Their only communication is by shouting through the bars of their cells or talking into certain air ducts.
Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana filed suit against the government contending that isolating conditions at the penitentiary violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
"It's certainly a very punitive way to spend time. There's no question about it," Antkowiak said.
But while strict, Antkowiak says the government has good reason to keep these men apart and with limited contact with penitentiary staff. These are some of the most violent men in country convicted of horrific acts. Given their fate, they have little to lose in taking another life.
"The trade off with the government has to take into account in terms of the security of innocent people who have to be involved necessitates that kind of treatment may be the only way to handle the situation," Antkowiak said.
What's clear is that Bowers will be spending many years here. Even if the moratorium is lifted, Antkowiak says it's not likely he'll be one of the next prisoners executed. Like most all of those newly sentenced to death row, an appeal of the sentence is very likely. Antkowiak says Bowers will have a difficult road there.
He did not contest committing the massacre, and he had a renowned defense attorney in Judy Clarke, an experienced legal team, who spent more than four years researching and preparing his defense.
"In this case it does seem that no stone has been left unturned," Antkowiak noted.
