(C) Common Dreams
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Justice Department seeking death penalty for Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron [1]
['Jay Tokasz', 'Patrick Lakamp News Staff Reporters', 'Patrick Lakamp', 'Derek Gee', 'Buffalo News', 'Buffalo News File Photo', 'Libmarch', 'Mike Mcandrew']
Date: 2024-01
The Justice Department will seek the death penalty for the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people in the racist Buffalo mass shooting at a Tops grocery store if he is convicted of federal charges.
Relatives of the victims were told about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision in a private meeting with prosecutors on Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Buffalo.
At the same time, prosecutors filed a document with the court that said: “The United States of America, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3593(a), notifies the Court and Defendant PAYTON GENDRON that the United States believes the circumstances in Counts 11-20 of the Indictment, Dkt. 6, are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified under 18 U.S.C. §§ 3591-98, and that the United States will seek the sentence of death for these offenses: Use and Discharge of a Firearm to Commit Murder During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence, 18 U.S.C. § 924© and (j).”
Gendron, now 20, admitted in his writings before the May 14, 2022, attack that he picked the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue as the site because it was located in a neighborhood with a high percentage of Black residents, and he wanted to kill as many Black people as he could.
The then-18-year-old college student drove more than 200 miles from his parents’ home in Conklin to carry out his assault, armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, body armor and a helmet-mounted camera he used to livestream the murders.
In addition to killing 10, Gendron wounded three other people at the store.
This is the first new case in which the Biden administration has sought the death penalty. It had inherited other death penalty cases.
In their notice of intent to seek the death penalty, prosecutors cited a handful of aggravating factors, including that Gendron actions were “racially-motivated killings, showing his expressed bias, hatred, and contempt toward Black persons.”
Other factors cited were: Multiple killings and attempted killings; killing several victims who were particularly vulnerable due to old age and infirmity; substantial planning and premeditation; grave risk of death to others; committing acts of violence to incite violent action by others; and selecting the Tops Market on the East Side to maximize the number of Black victims.
Relatives react
Mark Talley, whose 62-year-old mother, Geraldine Talley, was killed by Gendron, said Friday after meeting with prosecutors, “He does deserve to die. But I want something worse than that.”
Talley told reporters outside the courthouse that he understood the death penalty decision but would have preferred to see Gendron “tortured for the rest of his life” in a state prison surrounded by people who want to kill him on a daily basis or trapped in solitary confinement.
The death penalty announcement provided little relief for the anguish of losing his mother to a domestic terrorist and white supremacist, he added.
“There’s no such thing as healing when you see your mother die 15 times,” he said.
Other family members of shooting victims said they were disappointed because they believe the decision now means the case will likely drag on indefinitely due to multiple appeals.
“It could go on forever. He’s a young man. For my family’s sake, I wanted them to have closure,” said Michelle Fryson, whose cousin Marcus Morrison and aunt Pearl Young were among those fatally gunned down. “To never have closure, to always be in this circus is exhausting and exasperating.”
Frederick Morrison said he will continue to be there for his brother Marcus by attending Gendron’s federal trial.
“I got to be there,” he said.
But Morrison said he and others opposed the death penalty in this case because they wanted Gendron to be locked up for life.
“It ain’t no personal belief against the death penalty, it’s just that that would have been a quick, easy way out. You done killed 10 people with no emotions ... You just got away with murder, 10 lives,” Morrison said. “I think you should just rot in jail.”
Pamela Pritchett, the daughter of Young, said no matter how the Justice Department proceeded, it wasn’t going to help her healing process.
“If they would have said death penalty, as they did, or they would have said life, for me, and my prayer for all of us, I think all of us will say the same thing: We just want healing. And in order to have healing that’s something we work on for ourselves, and that’s my prayer for everybody,” said Pritchett.
Attorneys Ben Crump, Terry Connors and Fu Zimmermann, who represent several of the victims and families, said in a joint statement that today’s decision provided “a measure of closure” for their clients.
“They have been pleading for full justice for nearly two years, and today they are one step closer. We thank the DOJ for its diligence and for fighting for those whose lives were so tragically affected by this atrocity,” the statement said.
John Elmore, an attorney representing three of the families who lost loved ones in the mass shooting, has previously told The News that his clients have a range of feelings about whether Gendron should face the death penalty. Some feel strongly that he should, Elmore said, while others are satisfied knowing he would never walk free again.
Serving 10 life prison sentences
Gendron, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree attempted murder, among other charges, in New York State court, has already been sentenced for those crimes to life in prison without parole.
There is no death penalty sentence in New York’s state courts.
But he is still facing 27 federal charges – including 10 counts of committing hate crimes that resulted in death – that could result in a death sentence.
His public defense lawyers have said that Gendron would plead guilty to all 27 federal charges, resulting in multiple federal life sentences if prosecutors did not seek capital punishment.
“There will be no motions,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Sonya A. Zoghlin told U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo at an Aug. 2 hearing. “There will be a plea and a sentence of life without parole.”
Gendron’s public defense lawyers presented mitigating evidence to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office on Sept. 18 to try to persuade the office not to seek the death penalty against Gendron.
Garland had expressed opposition to the death penalty in the past.
A 2021 moratorium he issued as attorney general on carrying out federal executions remains.
Across the country, federal prosecutors proceeded to trial on two death penalty cases that Garland inherited, according to the Washington Post, but the attorney general opted not to seek capital punishment in 32 other cases filed before he took office.
A federal jury in August sentenced to death Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, making him the first to be sentenced to federal capital punishment under the Biden administration.
Last March, a jury in Manhattan could not reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty in the case involving Sayfullo Saipov, an ISIS-inspired attacker convicted of killing eight people by driving a rented truck along a Manhattan bike path. So he was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences.
Unlike Bowers and Saipov, who lacked remorse, Gendron has apologized for killing his victims.
“I cannot express how much I regret all the decisions I made leading up to my actions on May 14th. I did a terrible thing that day,” Gendron said last February at his sentencing in state court. “I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. And now I can’t take it back.”
During a brief court proceeding Friday, Vilardo adjourned further proceedings in the Gendron case until Feb. 2 to give prosecutors and defense lawyers time to confer on pretrial motions ahead of a scheduling order.
Gendron has generally not appeared in federal court for his proceedings, and he wasn’t in the courthouse Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi asked that Gendron begin appearing in court, and Vilardo said there will “come a point in the near future he’ll need to be here.”
“We’re gong to want him here sooner than later,” the judge said.
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[1] Url:
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-courts/justice-department-seeking-death-penalty-for-buffalo-mass-shooter-payton-gendron/article_c8dbf124-b162-11ee-b1f2-bf23b523390d.html
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