Bruce Antkowiak: Reflections on the trial of Robert Bowers
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Among the many stories that have filled the news in recent weeks, many seem little more than echoes of pointless political bickering and posturing, requiring little substantive thought or reflection. But the case of Robert Bowers is very different. It demands our attention.
As the jury has now reached its verdict and has recommended that Bowers should die for the horrific action taken on Oct. 27, 2018, there is ample cause to reflect on how the pain of that day, the pain relived during the trial and the pain which will endure have deeply affected so many people in very different ways.
First, of course, are those who died and the families they left behind. It is heartening to know that so many people rightfully insist that those who died be remembered more profoundly for how they lived than for the tragic circumstances of their senseless death. They were good and holy people, stalwarts in their family and community, people of deep faith. They must be remembered for the monument they built during their life and honored for the legacy they left for all of us.
For those who were injured in this terrible incident, let us hope that this experience, as easy as it would be to embitter anyone toward all of mankind, instead be a reminder that life is a precious gift to be lived at its best at every moment since the world is an uncertain place with dangerous people who for any reason, or for no reason at all, would seek to cut our lives short.
Let us also reflect on those police and other first responders who once again gave us an example of the possibility that human beings can truly be selfless and noble. On that day and on many others, instead of running from the harm and avoiding the sound of gunfire, they charged to the danger for the sole purpose of protecting innocent people they did not know but who were part of the community they have dedicated their lives to protect. One of these officers was a student I taught here at Saint Vincent. I am deeply proud of him and of all who answer these calls every day.
Think of the lawyers involved in this case. On both sides they exerted an intense effort to produce justice through the process of our court system in a way which deeply credits all of us in the legal profession. It is the efforts of lawyers in every case that is the best guarantee that a human system will produce, at least more often than not, a judgment in which all of us can rightfully invest our faith.
And we must think of the jury. This will be an experience that will live with them for the rest of their lives. They accepted a responsibility few of us are ever called upon to accept. They will most likely relive this experience often and they will find peace in their decision to the extent that they made it as a true matter of conscience thinking of the broad issues that decision presented them and acting upon the noblest instincts they could summon. I wish them that peace.
And finally, let us think about ourselves and the society we have created. The incident itself and the retelling of it at trial has truly been a deeply painful experience for everyone touched by it. But it should also be a cause for reflection by everyone who senses the pain it has caused.
Pain, as C.S. Lewis said, is God’s megaphone, a terrible instrument signaling something deeply wrong and profoundly unsettling. But it can have this salutatory effect. As Lewis wrote, “pain removes the veil and plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.”
The jury has seen the pain of this incident as planting the flag of truth in a way many seem afraid to do in our society. They have seen it as marking the outer boundary of what we are willing to accept. They have, by their verdict, called upon all of us to ask whether there is a line, a point of no return our society has established past which we cannot tolerate the actions of one of our members.
To be sure, it is a most positive development in human evolution that we understand much more today about the devastating impacts of mental illness on so many people and how the horrific actions many take are not the result of any inherent evil on their part but are the manifestations of deeply embedded afflictions over which they have little control. Our appreciation of that knowledge rightfully should cause us to be more understanding of the actions of others and deeply concerned that more is not done to find effective treatments and enable their administration for those who are afflicted.
But if we are to think of ourselves as a moral people, if we are put an ultimate value upon anything, we must be able to say that under certain and indeed rare circumstances a line has been crossed which we cannot tolerate and cannot excuse. This jury has found that on Oct. 27, 2018, Robert Bowers took us to that line and crossed it.
The belief systems extant today have left so many of us fundamentally confused about the nature and even the existence of basic principles.
Perhaps clarity can begin to be achieved by asking whether this jury has properly identified that line, if another such line exists, or if all is relative and that nothing has ultimate meaning or value. I hope that is not, and never becomes, the case. I hope that, as President Lincoln said, we are touched by the better angels of our nature and have the will, wisdom and courage to draw that critical line.
Bruce Antkowiak is a law professor at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe.