BUFFALO, NY – The Justice Department plans to seek the death penalty against the man accused of a mass shooting at a supermarket. The gunfire claimed the lives of ten African Americans, according to an announcement made Friday in a federal court filing. Payton Gendron, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, is already serving a life sentence without parole after admitting guilt on state murder and hate crime charges related to the 2022 assault.
Although New York State doesn’t enforce capital punishment, federal prosecutors had the option of pursuing it in this distinct hate crime case. Gendron had previously offered to plead guilty if the death sentence was not sought after.
The decision to pursue the death penalty was due in part to the meticulous premeditation involved in the attack, according to attorney Trini Ross. She highlighted how Gendron specifically targeted a supermarket located in the predominantly black East Side neighborhood of the city in a conscious effort to maximize black casualties.
Victims’ families were divided on whether the federal prosecutors should pursue the death penalty or not. Geraldine Talley’s son, Mark Talley, wished that Gendron would spend his life imprisoned amongst the people he tried to exterminate. Similarly, Pearl Young’s daughter, Pamela Pritchett, would prefer Gendron to suffer daily in jail.
On May 14, 2022, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, Gendron brutally opened fire on the patrons and employees at the supermarket after driving over 200 miles from his home in rural Conklin, New York.
Gendron’s lawyers expressed their disappointment at the decision to seek the death penalty. The killer was just 18 years old at the time of the racially motivated attack. His counsel suggested that the government’s efforts could be better employed in combating the contributing factors to the crime, such as unrestricted access to lethal weapons and social media companies’ failure to suppress online hate speech.
The Justice Department has been reluctant to engage in federal death penalty cases since Biden’s election, in line with his opposition to capital punishment. This case is, therefore, unique in being the first death penalty pursuit authorized under Attorney General Merrick Garland’s leadership.
While a moratorium does exist on federal executions slated for review, it does not prevent prosecutors from pursuing death sentences. However, the Justice Department has done so sparingly under Garland.