BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New York are seeking the death penalty for Payton Gendron, a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022. Gendron is already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism.
While New York does not have capital punishment, the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. In a notice announcing the decision to seek the death penalty, the U.S. attorney for western New York, Trini Ross, wrote that Gendron had selected the supermarket “in order to maximize the number of Black victims.”
Relatives of the victims have expressed mixed views on whether they think federal prosecutors should pursue the death penalty. Mark Talley, whose 63-year-old mother Geraldine Talley was killed in the attack, stated that he would have preferred Gendron to spend the rest of his life in prison suffering every day. Other family members of victims left without speaking after meeting with prosecutors.
The Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, has made federal death penalty cases a rarity. Garland instituted a moratorium on federal executions in 2021 pending a review of procedures. While still permitting prosecutors from seeking death sentences, the Justice Department has done so sparingly.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron attacked shoppers and workers with a semi-automatic rifle at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, choosing the business for its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood. 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. This case marks the first time Attorney General Garland has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty, signaling a shift in the Justice Department’s approach to capital punishment.