Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, they said in a court filing Friday. Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the 2022 attack.
Quick Read
- Death Penalty Sought: Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Payton Gendron, who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.
- Gendron’s Current Sentence: Gendron is already serving life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to state murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism charges.
- Federal Hate Crimes Case: The Justice Department considered the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case.
- Supermarket Targeted for Racial Reasons: Gendron chose the supermarket to maximize the number of Black victims, according to the U.S. attorney for western New York, Trini Ross.
- Factors for Seeking Death Penalty: The decision was influenced by the substantial planning and targeting of vulnerable victims.
- Mixed Views from Victims’ Relatives: Relatives expressed mixed feelings; some preferred Gendron spend his life in prison.
- Biden Administration’s Stance: The Biden administration, which opposes capital punishment, has made federal death penalty cases rare.
- AG Garland’s Actions: This is the first new pursuit of the death penalty authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The department has continued two capital prosecutions and withdrawn from over two dozen cases.
- Moratorium on Federal Executions: Garland instituted a moratorium on federal executions in 2021, affecting the pursuit of death sentences.
- Other Death Penalty Cases: The department has sought the death penalty in select cases, including a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and a New York City bike path attack.
- Declined Cases: The Justice Department has declined to seek the death penalty in other mass killings, like the El Paso Walmart shooting.
- Details of the Buffalo Attack: On May 14, 2022, Gendron attacked the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood, livestreaming the massacre and marking his rifle with racial slurs.
The Associated Press has the story:
Prosecutors seek death penalty for white supremacist who killed 10 at Buffalo supermarket
Newslooks- BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) —
Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, they said in a court filing Friday.
Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the 2022 attack.
New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. Gendron had promised to plead guilty in that case if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
In a notice announcing the decision to seek the death penalty, Trini Ross, the U.S. attorney for western New York, wrote that Gendron had selected the supermarket “in order to maximize the number of Black victims.”
The notice cited a rage of factors for the decision, including the substantial planning leading to the shooting and the decision to target at least one victim who was “particularly vulnerable due to old age and infirmity.”
Relatives of the victims had expressed mixed views on whether they thought federal prosecutors should pursue the death penalty. After meeting with prosecutors hours before a Friday hearing in the case, one of the relatives, Mark Talley, shared his thoughts.
“I’m not necessarily disappointed in the decision. … It would have satisfied me more knowing he would have spent the rest of his life in prison being surrounded by the population of people he tried to kill,” said Talley, whose 63-year-old mother Geraldine Talley was killed.
“I would prefer he spend the rest of his life in prison suffering every day,” he added.
Several other family members of victims left without speaking.
The Justice Department has made federal death penalty cases a rarity since the election of President Joe Biden, a Democrat who opposes capital punishment. This is the first time Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty. Under his leadership, the Justice Department has permitted the continuation of two capital prosecutions and withdrawn from pursuing death in more than two dozen cases.
Garland instituted a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 pending a review of procedures. Although the moratorium does not prevent prosecutors from seeking death sentences, the Justice Department has done so sparingly.
It successfully sought the death penalty for a antisemitic gunman who murdered 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which had been authorized as a death penalty case before Garland became attorney general.. It also went ahead last year with an effort to get the death sentence against an Islamic extremist who killed eight people on a New York City bike path, though a lack of a unanimous jury meant that prosecution resulted in a life sentence.
The Justice Department has declined to pursue the death penalty in other mass killings. It passed on seeking the execution of a gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron attacked shoppers and workers with a semi-automatic rifle at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo after driving more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from his home in rural Conklin, New York.
He chose the business for its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood and livestreamed the massacre from a camera attached to his tactical helmet.
The dead, who ranged in age from 32 to 86, included eight customers, the store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the store with their groceries. Three people were wounded but survived.
The rifle Gendron fired was marked with racial slurs and phrases including “The Great Replacement,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people.
