BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday in the federal hate crimes trial of Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, the Associated Press reported via KTAR News.
Gendron faces more than two dozen federal hate crime charges and more than a dozen firearms charges, and a potential death penalty. He is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges in 2023.
The attack at the Tops Friendly Market is believed to be the deadliest hate-motivated shooting targeting Black people by a lone gunman in the past century, according to the AP.
His defense team will not dispute his guilt and aims only to spare him from execution. “Nothing will change the fact that Payton Gendron will die in prison,” the federal public defender’s office said, adding it will offer mitigating evidence.
Victims’ families are divided. Wayne Jones, whose mother, Celestine Chaney, was killed, said he would rather see Gendron “sit and have to think about it year after year.” Buffalo Common Council member Zeneta Everhart, whose son was wounded, said she is not totally against the death penalty.
The trial is expected to draw national attention as one of the few federal death penalty cases to reach a jury in recent years.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Daderot / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
