Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the case of Payton Gendron, the white gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022. The decision marks the first time federal attorneys have sought the death penalty during Joe Biden’s presidency.
In a notice filed Friday, Jan. 12, in the U.S. District Court for Western New York, prosecutors laid out several factors “justifying a sentence of death.” Among them were claims that the mass shooting was intentional and carried out after “substantial planning and premeditation.” Prosecutors also argued that capital punishment was warranted because the killings were racially motivated, and, in carrying them out, Gendron was trying to “incite violent action by others.”
“Payton Gendron expressed bias, hatred, and contempt toward Black persons and his animus toward Black persons played a role in the killings,” prosecutors wrote. They further argued that Gendron “selected the Tops Friendly Market” in Buffalo “in order to maximize the number of Black victims of the offense.”
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Gendron’s public defender, Marianne Mariano, said: “We are deeply disappointed with the Attorney General’s decision to seek the death penalty against our client, who was 18 when he committed this crime and is already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole. Rather than a prolonged and traumatic capital prosecution, the efforts of the federal government would be better spent on combatting the forces that facilitated this terrible crime, including easy access to deadly weapons and the failure of social media companies to moderate the hateful rhetoric and images that circulate online.”
Gendron is facing multiple federal hate crime charges related to the racist motivation behind the attack. Specifically, he was charged with 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death, three counts of hate crime involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence, and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. Gendron has pleaded not guilty, though, as CNN notes, his public defenders previously stated in court that he would be willing to switch his plea to guilty if prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
Last February, Gendron was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty in Nov. 2022 to 25 state charges, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, and a single count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate. Gendron avoided capital punishment in that case because the death penalty is unconstitutional in New York State, though it remains an option in federal cases.
During the 2020 election, Biden notably staked out a position of taking steps to abolish the federal death penalty, though since his election, he’s done little to actualize that promise. The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, has made some moves to halt the wave of executions that rose drastically during Donald Trump’s presidency. Garland put a hold on federal executions while the DoJ reviewed policy changes made during the Trump admin and withdrew previously authorized intent to seek the death penalty in 25 cases. Up until today, the DoJ had not sought the death penalty in any new cases.
