A recent letter to the president by Anthony Fienberg and Howard Fienberg offers several reasons opposing commutation for Robert Bowers. He was charged with 63 federal crimes, some of which were capital offenses. Bowers pleaded not guilty, but on June 16, 2023, he was found guilty on all federal counts. On Aug. 2, 2023, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Bowers separately faces 36 charges in Pennsylvania state court.

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The Fienberg brothers’ mother, Joyce Fienberg, was among 11 people killed by Bowers in an Oct. 27, 2018, shooting rampage in the western Pennsylvania synagogue, during Saturday morning Shabbat services. The Tree of Life massacre remains the worst act of antisemitic violence in United States history.

Biden is reportedly considering commuting the sentences of most, possibly all, of the 40 current federal death row inmates.

That would be a terrible mistake, the Fienberg brothers argued in a Dec. 17 letter that addressed only Bowers’s federal death sentence.

“There are several reasons for our request,” the pair wrote. First, “The honor of the U.S. justice system and the work of the jury; 2) The importance of death row as a means of isolating this particular criminal and not allowing him to spread his antisemitic and racist rhetoric; 3) Careful use of the pardon power — unlike some other death row cases, this case is about a white, racist, antisemitic mass murderer specifically violating the lives and constitutional rights of a religious minority.”

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The Fienberg brothers offered two additional reasons for opposing a Biden clemency order on the Tree of Life killer. “This criminal’s complete lack of remorse — his only regret is that he did not kill more Jews; and 5) The need to honor the memory of our mother.”

The brothers then elaborated on their slain parent and the many good years she had ahead.

“Our 75-year-old mom was retired, but she was by no means over the hill. Her own mother (our Nana) lived to 101, and mom could have easily expected another 25 years with us, continuing to enjoy her six grandchildren, traveling the globe, and sharing her love and compassion with a vast network of family, friends, and volunteer organizations,” wrote Anthony and Howard Fienberg, the latter of whom is a Northern Virginia resident and government relations professional. Howard Fienberg previously was a senior Capitol Hill staff member.

Pressure On Biden From the Left

Biden is facing pressure to commute the sentences of the 40 federal inmates sitting on death row before President-elect Donald Trump, a death penalty advocate, takes office.

If Biden does not take action on this front, each inmate will continue to be eligible for execution once Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025, for a second, non-consecutive term.

More than 60 Democratic members of Congress, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a coalition led by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers have been demanding Biden commute the federal inmates’ sentences. Two of the most vocal Democratic lawmakers pressuring Biden to make that move lost their primary reelection bids earlier this year and will leave office at the end of this Congress on Jan. 3, 2025 — Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

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Other returning House Democrats advocating a broad federal death sentence commutation include members of “The Squad,” a group of hard-left lawmakers, such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Additional signees of a Nov. 20 letter to Biden about the federal death penalty are more establishment-minded House Democrats, such as Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), and Steven Horsford (D-NV).

At a Dec. 10 Capitol Hill news conference, progressives urged Biden to commute sentences for all 40 individuals sitting on federal death row, guilty or innocent.

“With 40 days left in his presidency, we must move with urgency and ensure that history never repeats itself,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) said, referring to the decades-high number of federal executions carried out during the first Trump administration.

“He has the power, and he has the authority,” Pressley said of Biden. “Now, this is not only the just thing to do for President Biden as a man of faith and in honoring his campaign promise to address the federal death penalty. It’s not just good policy. It is also good politics.”

During a press conference the same day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer questions on calls to commute death row prisoners. However, Biden is reportedly giving serious consideration to commuting death sentences to life without parole.

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It’s unclear whether that includes all 40 federal death row inmates. Biden could commute some, but not all federal death sentences.

Several cases, such as the Tree of Life killings, have received waves of media coverage over the years. Others are the cases of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and wounded more than 250 others, and Dylann Roof, who, in 2015, killed nine worshipers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

But no such sentence leniency should happen in the Bowers case, the Fienberg brothers wrote.

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“This criminal carefully planned the attack early on a Sabbath morning, intentionally armed himself, formed the Tree of Life synagogue, and shot every Jew he could find, while they worshipped,” the letter says.

“He hunted them down, seeking to kill them in as ‘messy’ a manner possible (his words),” they continue. “When law enforcement responded, he lured them into a trap — wounding five officers. Two of the responding officers were crippled to the extent they can no longer serve. This criminal’s only regret is that he didn’t kill more Jews. Had law enforcement not responded so swiftly, more would have been killed at the synagogue, and dozens more Jews at his next target a few minutes away to which he was headed when law enforcement officers arrived.”