Updated as of 4/5/2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET
The white man who gunned down ten Black people inside a Buffalo supermarket in a racially motivated massacre is facing the ultimate penalty by the Department of Justice. However, he’s come up with a slick idea that may or may not change the odds of him meeting the chair.
Attorneys for Payton Gendron, 20, filed a request in the U.S. District Court earlier this week arguing that their client has no chance of receiving an unbiased jury if the pool is picked in the area impacted by the shooting, per USA TODAY.
“Due to the overwhelming amount of pretrial publicity, combined with the impact of this case on Buffalo’s segregated communities of color, it is impossible for Payton Gendron to select a fair and impartial jury in the Western District of New York,” wrote Gendron’s lawyers in the filing.
The attorneys argued that a “diverse group of citizens” should be the ones to deliver a verdict in the case.
DOJ Seeks Death Penalty
Gendron is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in connection to the fatal mass shooting of ten Black people at Tops Friendly Market back in 2022, per The New York Times.
His racist motives were discovered after investigators found a manifesto he posted online, filled with white supremacist ideologies. They also found he targeted this neighborhood because it contained a majority-Black population.
Gendron still faces sentencing for federal hate crimes, use of firearms to commit murder and gun charges. Though New York does not hand out the death penalty, court records show the Department of Justice sent a notice of intent to seek the death penalty anyway Friday.
“...the United States believes the circumstances in counts 11 to 20 of the Indictment are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified...” the notice reads.
Read more from CBS News:
New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. The gunman had promised to plead guilty in that case if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
The Justice Department has made federal death penalty cases a rarity since the election of President Biden, who opposes capital punishment. This is the first time Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty. Under his leadership, the Justice Department has permitted the continuation of two capital prosecutions and withdrawn from pursuing death in more than two dozen cases.
The families of the victims weren’t necessarily jovial at the news of the filing. Mark Talley, grandson of Geraldine Talley who was killed in the incident, said he would’ve rathered Gendron do prison time.
“It would have satisfied me more knowing he would have spent the rest of his life in prison being surrounded by the population of people he tried to kill. I would prefer he spend the rest of his life in prison suffering every day,” he told CBS.
In a statement on behalf of the other relatives of the victims, attorney Terrence Connors said the families were relieved of the decision but “no decision could eliminate the pain and suffering they continue to experience.”
In the same breath, Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, an organization fighting against the expansion of death penalty legislation, said execution will do nothing to solve the real problem.
“The government’s decision to pursue a death sentence will do nothing to address the racism and hatred that fueled the mass murder. Ultimately, this pursuit will inflict more pain and renewed trauma on the victims’ families and the larger Black community already shattered by loss and desperately in need of healing and solutions that truly build community safety,” Hodge said in a statement.