Notable pitch to expedite federal appeals of condemned Pittsburgh synagogue shooter

This editorial from the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught my eye this past week. The piece is headlined “Expedite synagogue shooter’s death penalty appeals,” and here are excerpts:

Now that Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers has been sentenced to death, there’s no reason to further delay the administration of justice. The Department of Justice and the federal courts should take every step possible to expedite the appeals.

Further, the convicted murderer and his legal team, having failed in their desperate attempt to convince a Western Pennsylvania jury to spare him, should decline to make unnecessary appeals.  There is no question of his guilt, and the jury convincingly rejected the proposed mitigating factors, while the defendant showed no remorse.  Finally, there is no sign whatsoever of the kind of prosecutorial misconduct that would throw the conviction and sentence into doubt.  Further litigation will only waste time and money, and will further prolong the healing process for the victims’ families and community….

The robust death penalty appeals process exists to minimize the possibility of a false conviction, but in this case there is no doubt as to the defendant’s guilt.  After an exhaustive process, including weeks of testimony, a jury of his peers found him culpable. Further, the defense already pursued every possible stratagem, including causing years of delays, to avoid the death sentence.  They all failed.  Spending years relitigating these matters will not enhance the administration of justice.

Due to the Department of Justice’s decision to pursue the death penalty, followed by innumerable delay tactics by the shooter’s defense team, it has taken nearly five years to complete merely the first step in the process — conviction and sentencing.  These excruciating years have denied victims’ families and the wider community a measure of closure.  Now, the system — including the shooter’s defense team — can do right by those who carry the wounds of October 27, 2018, by expediting the appeals.

Not mentioned in this article is the fact that Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a nationwide moratorium on federal executions that has been in place for more than two years and seems unlikely to be rescinded as long as Joe Biden is the Oval Office.  So, even if appeals were expedited for the condemned Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, it is very unlikely that he would be executed on an expeditious schedule.  Nevertheless, I think this editorial sensibly suggests that an extra “measure of closure” would come whenever standard appeals are exhausted for this condemned mass murderer even if he were not to be executed anytime soon.  And yet, even if serious efforts were made to expedite the appeals in this case, I suspect that it would likely still take many years to exhaust them.