U.S. | Lawyears want Buffalo shooter exempted from death penalty

BUFFALO — Lawyers for the shooter who killed 10 people at a Tops grocery store in 2022 have asked for a federal court order exempting him from the death penalty because he was 18 years old at the time of the racist mass shooting.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for juvenile offenders was unconstitutional. Since that ruling carved out an exemption for people under 18, the science of late-adolescent brain development has advanced markedly, according to the public defense lawyers for Payton Gendron.

“Given both the consensus in the scientific community and evolving community standards, this court should bar the government from seeking the death penalty against Payton Gendron,” according to the filing Monday in U.S. District Court from Assistant Federal Public Defender Sonya A. Zoghlin, Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender Anne M. Burger, Senior Litigator MaryBeth Covert and attorney Julie Brain.

Previous studies focused on the effects of brain development on juveniles under 18, but more recent research has examined this process for those in their late teens and early 20s who also do not yet have fully developed adult brains, they said.

“This research shows that people in this age group bear a strong resemblance to juveniles under 18 when it comes to their decision-making and behavioral abilities,” according to the defense filing.

Gendron’s lawyers, in a separate motion, asked U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo to enter an order finding the federal death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and striking down the government’s notice of intent to seek death.

The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits arbitrary punishment and the Eighth Amendment forbids impermissibly cruel and unusual punishment, his lawyers said in their filing.

A comparison of Gendron’s case to other mass shooters “shows that the government is failing to treat similar cases similarly when the only material difference is the location of the crime,” his lawyers said.

“In other words, it is arbitrary for the government to spare some defendants but single out Payton Gendron, even though their culpability is arguably the same,” the defense lawyers say.

For example, the government last year filed notice of its intent not to seek the death penalty against Patrick Crusius, who shot to death 23 shoppers in an El Paso Walmart, the lawyers said.

In a separate court filing Monday, Gendron’s lawyers also moved to dismiss Gendron’s indictment on the basis of what they call the unconstitutionality of the federal Hate Crimes Act.

In their notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Gendron, prosecutors cited nine aggravating factors, including that his murders were “racially motivated killings, showing his expressed bias, hatred, and contempt toward Black persons.”

Vilardo has set a federal trial date of Sept. 8, 2025.

On May 14, 2022, Gendron targeted Black people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue in a racist attack he livestreamed on the internet. He fatally shot 10 Black people and wounded a Black person and two white people.

A federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment against Gendron, including 10 counts of committing hate crimes that resulted in death. The U.S. Justice Department announced in January that it will seek the death penalty. Gendron has already been sentenced by an Erie County judge to life in prison without parole on his guilty pleas to 10 state charges of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree attempted murder, among other charges.

Source: The Buffalo News, Patrick Lakamp, June 12, 2024

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