Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 28, 2021

Defense attorneys for the man charged in connection with the killing of 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill have said that they will forego a review of hundreds of pieces of physical evidence in the case to protect the health and safety of themselves and their family from covid-19.

In a Sept. 10 letter, attorneys for Robert Bowers reiterated their request to prosecutors to delay the evidence review with the FBI until November, with the hope that the number of cases of the virus will have decreased significantly or, so that children or other family members could get vaccinated or booster shots.

Your opposition to our request to postpone the review until November, and Judge [Donetta] Ambroses apparent reliance on your opposition in denying our motion, has forced us to choose between Mr. Bowers right to have counsel inspect the physical evidence at this time and our own and our families health and safety, the letter said. We felt compelled to choose the latter.

At a status conference on Tuesday, federal prosecutors asked the court to conduct a colloquy with Bowers to ensure he knows his attorneys are choosing not to review the evidence against him.

The defense in the future could allege he had no idea his counsel took this position, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti.

He called the defense argument of having to choose between their health and safety and a need to review the evidence a false dichotomy.

Bowers is charged in federal court with killing 11 people from three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27, 2018.

Ambrose said she would consider whether questioning Bowers on the issue of the evidence review is necessary. If so, she continued, that could be accomplished at a suppression hearing scheduled for Oct. 12.

The letter attached to your motion did set up that dichotomy the choice between his right to review the evidence and their health perhaps dramatically, Ambrose said.

The two sides have been discussing and arguing about the physical evidence review for nearly two years.

An initial evidence review was conducted on Feb. 25, 2020, according to court documents, and was to continue into the next day.

However, less than two hours in to the second day, the defense ended its review abruptly asserting that their decision was based on unspecified defense strategy and deliberations, and stating that they would return at an unspecified time in the coming months, the prosecution said.

The government wrote in a court filing that the refusal to continue the review was unreasonable and that it appeared to be part of the defenses ongoing apparent strategy of unreasonable demands and intentional delay.

However, the defense said in a letter the same day that it ended the review so that they could resume at a later time when they could be more efficient and effective.

It is far more efficient to look at these remaining items after were able to make better sense of the source of many of these items, identified items we may want to see a second time, and after weve been able to get answers to some lingering questions, they wrote.

In the same letter, the defense noted that the restrictions on the in-person, physical evidence review were more cumbersome than theyd experienced before.

Among those restrictions, according to a letter by the defense, Bowers attorneys were not permitted to have a camera to take pictures of the items of evidence; were limited to having a single laptop computer with disabled video and audio recording capability; were provided only one item of evidence at a time and were prohibited from having any cell phones.

In addition, armed FBI agents remained in the room at all times, and two prosecutors remained, as well, taking notes.

Remaining items still to be reviewed, the defense said, include packets of bullets and DNA-related items.

In July, Ambrose ordered the parties to set dates for the second evidence review, writing that she expected it to be completed by the end of September.

However, the defense asked for a delay because of the rising infection rates of covid. Bowers attorneys asked that the governments prosecutors not be permitted in the room and that any FBI agents that are present not be involved in the case.

The prosecution objected, noting events that occurred during the first evidence review.

According to court filings, during the Feb. 25, 2020, review, a member of the defense team asked if they could handle a Glock firearm that was evidence in the case, and the FBI gave permission.

After lifting the weapon from the display table, the firearm fell or was dropped back on to the table with considerable force, although no visible damage was apparent, the government wrote.

In addition, while inspecting a Garmin device in evidence, a member of the defense inadvertently powered it on, prosecutors said. A similar situation arose with the handling of a camera.

In a court filing, the government argued that what happened demonstrates the need to having members of the prosecution team present during the review.

In just one day, one item of evidence was powered on, another possibly nearly powered on by a member of the defense team, and a firearm was dropped/fell with force onto the evidence examination table while being held by a member of the defense team, they wrote. Were those occurrences not witnessed and permissibly shared among the prosecution team, any alteration or damage to those evidence items would have been unknown to the agents and prosecutors who would later attest to the condition of the trial evidence.

The government said the defenses request is unfathomable.

Such a result is untenable and irresponsible.

On Sept. 9, Ambrose issued an order granting the defense request to keep prosecutors out of the evidence review. But it also denied the request relative to having unrelated FBI agents attend. The parties also agreed to allow the defense to take in one camera.

That same day, the judge denied the defense request to push the evidence review back to November.

At last weeks status conference, defense attorney Elisa Long said that it is their right to look at all, some or none of the evidence, and that their discussions with Bowers about that are not the business of the prosecution or the court.

Ambrose agreed.

There is no way to compel the defense to review the evidence, the judge said. But, at some point, there will be no more time. Its very important to get this case moving.

Repeatedly throughout the case, the prosecution has accused the defense of delay tactics assertions repeated this week.

Rivetti told Ambrose during the status conference that the governments witnesses, the victims and the families of those killed deserve to know when the case will move forward.

They all need a sense of when do we see this case getting to trial, he said.

Paula Reed Ward is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paula by email at pward@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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Federal prosecutors, defense spar over evidence review in Tree of Life case - TribLIVE

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