NewsA federal court sentenced a West Virginia man, Hardy Carroll Lloyd, to 78 months in prison on Wednesday for obstructing the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting trial. The sentencing includes the possibility of supervised release after three years.
Lloyd previously admitted to intentionally interfering in the federal hate crimes trial for Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 people in the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. A self-described white supremacist, Lloyd targeted jurors and witnesses in the trial with a campaign of online harassment composed of social media posts, online comments and threatening emails. He has said that he chose his targets because they were connected to the Pittsburgh Jewish community, the Tree of Life trial and victims of the shooting.
At the time of Lloyd’s admission, FBI Director Chrisopher Wray said:
It is absolutely reprehensible that the defendant threatened witnesses and jurors in the Tree of Life case, a tragedy that claimed innocent lives and emotionally scarred many in the Jewish community. The FBI will not tolerate the intimidation of citizens participating in our criminal justice system, and we will work with our partners to hold legally accountable anyone who threatens or carries out acts of violence against them.
Bowers was convicted in June of 63 counts related to his October 27, 2018 attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue, including federal hate crimes charges. Over the course of the trial, federal prosecutors for the Western District of Pennsylvania revealed evidence of Bowers’ participation in and consumption of white supremacist media. A federal judge imposed the death sentence on Bowers, although US Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued a moratorium on all federal executions.
The sentencing comes amid a multi-year increase in hate crimes in the US, with the FBI reporting that there were nearly 800 more cases of hate crimes in 2022 than in 2021. President Joe Biden has previously decried the increase in hate-based violence, saying in a statement:
Antisemitic hate crimes rose 25 percent from 2021 to 2022, and Antisemitism accounted for over half of all reported religion-based hate crimes. Anti-LGBTQI+ hate crimes rose 16 percent, and Muslim Americans and African Americans continue to be overrepresented among victims.
The data is a reminder that hate never goes away, it only hides. Any hate crime is a stain on the soul of America.
Authorities and advocates have warned that hate crimes are surging even further in the wake of the current Israel-Hamas war, with the Anti-Defamation League and Council on American-Islamic Relations reporting an “unprecedented” increase in antisemitic, Islamophobic and anti-Arab incidents. In October, a 6-year-old Palestinian American was stabbed to death in Illinois; last month, three Palestinian American students were shot in Vermont; and last weekend, more than 400 Jewish institutions were targeted with false bomb threats.
