BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Justice Department has announced its intention to seek the death penalty for Payton Gendron, the white supremacist responsible for the killings of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. This would mark the first time under the Biden administration that a new attempt at the death penalty has been authorized.
While the state of New York does not have capital punishment, the department received an opportunity to seek the penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case against Gendron. The 20-year-old is currently serving a life sentence without parole after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism related to the 2022 attack.
Gendron traveled over 200 miles from his home in Conklin, N.Y., to a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo’s East Side, a predominantly Black neighborhood, to carry out the shooting, intentionally choosing the location to “maximize the number of Black victims,” according to documents that announced the decision to seek the death penalty.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions from family members of the victims. While some expressed relief and a sense of closure, others, like Mark Talley, who lost his mother in the attack, would have preferred Gendron to spend his life in prison.
Gendron’s attorney, Sonya Zoghlin, criticized the decision, emphasizing his client’s age at the time of the shooting and suggesting that efforts would be better spent addressing factors that facilitated the crime, such as easy access to deadly weapons and the failure of social media companies to moderate hateful rhetoric and images that circulate online.
In total, eight supermarket customers were killed, in addition to the store security guard and a church deacon who transported shoppers to and from the store. Three other individuals were wounded in the attack but survived.