Death Penalty News

Payton Gendron, who is already serving life without parole for killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, is asking a federal judge to throw out the case that could send him to death row. Defense attorneys filed the motion Monday — a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin — seeking to dismiss Gendron’s federal indictment. They argued that Black residents are underrepresented in the jury pool for New York’s Western District, according to WIVB and WKBW.

As El Pasoans gather for the fifth anniversary of the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, the state of Texas' death penalty case against the gunman continues to languish in legal maneuvering and a judge's gag order. The case has been delayed in state court for several reasons, mainly because state prosecutors and defense attorneys are continuing a years-long battle over how to handle the massive amount of evidence in the case.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The man responsible for the racially-motivated mass shooting at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo is due back in federal court on Tuesday morning. Federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against Payton Gendron, the White supremacist who killed 10 Black people in the mass shooting on May 14, 2022.

Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, they said in a court filing Friday.  Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the 2022 attack.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Relatives of victims of a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket have been called to federal court Friday for a “substantial update” in the legal case against the gunman, their attorney said. The meeting between Department of Justice representatives and victims of Payton Gendron will take place ahead of a previously scheduled afternoon status conference, attorney Terrence Connors said. Connors represents relatives of some of the 10 Black people killed and three other people wounded in the May 14, 2022, attack.

On successive days last week, a grand jury indicted Donald Trump and a petit jury sentenced Robert Bowers to die. Something about the immediate juxtaposition of these two events had my head spinning. I can’t really explain it, and unlike my other essays, I don’t have a particular claim I want to establish or argument I want to advance in these 1300 words. It’s more an occasion to reflect on how we use the criminal law and what we hope it will accomplish. I hope readers will excuse the tentativeness in my writing. At one level, the two events seem so different as to make comparisons insulting. Donald Trump has been charged with attempting to subvert the democratic process by interfering with the result of the 2020 presidential election; Robert Bowers was sentenced to die for killing eleven worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. I recognize and acknowledge the obvious differences even as I write these words. But there is...

The admitted white supremacist who was sentenced to life in prison by a federal court for the Walmart mass shooting is now in state custody and remains in El Paso as he awaits a state trial in connection with the attack, officials said. El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks announced Tuesday during a news conference that Patrick Crusius, 24, was transferred about 1 p.m. Tuesday from federal custody to state custody – the first major step to moving forward with the state of Texas' case against the gunman.

The gunman who killed 10 people and injured three last year in a racist attack on a grocery store that served a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, is set to be sentenced Wednesday on state charges related to the shooting. Payton Gendron, a 19-year-old White man, pleaded guilty in November to one count of domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons possession charge in the mass shooting at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14. He is expected to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Accused El Paso Walmart shooter pleads guilty to 90 federal charges including hate crimes. EL PASO, Texas (KTEP) - The man accused of killing 23 people at an El Paso Walmart pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges including murder and hate crimes. Dressed in a dark blue prison jumpsuit, wearing a facemask and shackled, Patrick Crusius, showed little emotion as he listened to each one of the names of the 23 people gunned down at a Walmart in 2019 or injured in the attack. He answered guilty to each charge of murder and attempted murder as well as hate crimes.

Dec 9 (Reuters) - The white man who admitted to shooting dead 10 Black people at a western New York grocery store in May would consider pleading guilty to federal charges if prosecutors do not pursue a death sentence, media outlets reported on Friday citing his attorneys. Lawyers for Payton Gendron, 19, moved to seek a plea agreement at a court hearing on Friday, less than two weeks after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism. An avowed white supremacist, he faces 27 federal hate crimes and firearms offenses related to the racist massacre at a Tops Friendly Markets store. Authorities said he targeted the supermarket because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. Gendron pleaded not guilty to the federal accusations in July. A conviction would make him eligible for the death penalty. Gendron, who is from Conklin, New York, faces life in prison without parole on those counts. "Just as Payton Gendron entered a plea of guilty t...

The white gunman accused of killing 10 black people in a racially-motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges. Payton Gendron, 19, was indicted last week on federal hate crimes and firearm offenses. The accused gunman appeared in court in Buffalo, New York on Monday wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and shackles. His court-assigned attorney noted that he may enter a plea agreement before the case moves to trial. The 27-count federal indictment accuses Gendron of engaging in substantial planning to commit an act of terrorism against shoppers at a Tops Friendly Supermarket. He faces 14 hate crimes violations and 13 firearms offenses. Gendron, who was 18 at the time of the may 14 attack, could face the death penalty if convicted on the federal charges. The Justice Department said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty against Gendron would come later. Investigators say the teen, who livestreamed his racist attack online, chose...

On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted the shooter, Payton Gendron , on counts including federal hate crime charges punishable by the death penalty. BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The names of the 10 Black people massacred by a white gunman were read aloud Thursday outside the Buffalo supermarket where they died, two months after the racist attack. A bell tolled after each name at a ceremony marking the store’s reopening. Employees, neighbors and elected officials toured the overhauled store Thursday. Near the entrance, mirrors reflecting cascading water stood on both sides of a poem by Buffalo’s poet laureate, Jillian Hanesworth, which begins: “Let the hopeful healing waters flow.” Customers will return Friday morning. Ten Black people were killed when a then-18-year-old gunman wearing body armor and carrying a semiautomatic rifle opened fire on weekend shoppers and employees. Three people were wounded in the massacre. Investigators say the shooter was motivated by white supremacist beliefs...

A federal judge Thursday urged Justice Department lawyers to expedite a decision on whether they will seek the death penalty against the gunman in the Buffalo supermarket massacre. In his 1st court appearance since being charged with federal hate crimes in the May 14 attack that left 10 dead, Payton Gendron was put on notice that he faced the prospect of death in a case where he is accused of specifically targeting Black victims at the Tops Friendly Market. U.S. Magistrate Kenneth Schroeder Jr., said quick action was necessary so the defense could be afforded access to expert witnesses and other resources needed in capital cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said a determination on whether to seek the maximum penalty was the "sole decision" of Attorney General Merrick Garland, adding that the deliberation would "serious, thorough" and as "expedited" as possible. During the brief court hearing, Schroeder also agreed to provide court-appointed attorn...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday with federal hate crimes and could face the death penalty. The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Payton Gendron coincided with a visit to Buffalo by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general was expected to address the federal charges and meet with the families of the people who were killed. Garland placed a bouquet of white flowers tied with a yellow ribbon at a memorial to the victims outside the store, which has been shuttered and undergoing renovations since the attack. Gendron was already facing a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted on previously filed state charges in the May 14 rampage. The attack, at Tops Friendly Market, also left three survivors — one Black, two white. Ballistics evidence indicated that Gendron fired approximately 60 shots during the attack, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal co...

The suspect in the mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson Avenue is due in court Thursday for a felony hearing. But there are two things that may happen before then, absolving the need for the felony hearing. "I expect that he'll be indicted, but I also expect that the Department of Justice and the Assistant United States Attorney General Trini Ross will bring federal charges, federal hate crime charges, against the suspect. It carries the death penalty," New York Attorney General Letita James said. 7 News Legal Expert Florina Altshiler said she expects the federal case and state case will move forward concurrently. "Different charges, that's why they can happen concurrently. The federal case would be for federal hate crime charges. The reason for the federal case happening is the federal government can do things that the state government can not," Altshiler said. In New York State, there is no death penalty. The highest level of punishment is life without the p...

COPENHAGEN (AP) — A Norwegian court ruled Tuesday that far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik , who killed 77 people in 2011, must remain in prison, saying there remains “an obvious risk” he could return to behavior that led up to the massacre. Last month, Breivik faced a parole hearing before the three-judge Telemark District Court where he professed white supremacist views and flashed Nazi salutes on the hearing’s opening day, while claiming to have renounced violence. But the court said he remains a potential threat. “Because his psychiatric condition is unchanged, there is an obvious risk that he will fall back on the behavior that led up to the terrorist acts on July 22, 2011,” the court said in its ruling. The ruling said he “used extreme violence as a tool to achieve his own political goals” and the court “has no doubt that (Breivik) still today has the ability to commit new serious crimes that may expose others to danger.” Breivik is serving Norway’s maximum 21-year sentenc...