Newz(AP) — Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal hate crime trial of a man who admitted to killing 10 Black people in a massacre at a New York supermarket in 2022, a case that could lead to a rare death sentence.Payton Gendron is already spending life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges and tearfully renouncing his white supremacist views. He now faces a trial in federal court arising from the same mass shooting. The stakes are high: If convicted, the 23-year-old could face the death penalty.The attack at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo is believed to be the deadliest hate-motivated shooting targeting Black people in the U.S.
by a lone gunman in the past century.Gendron has pleaded not guilty to dozens of hate crime and gun charges, though his defense lawyers do not dispute his guilt. One even predicted a conviction when speaking to a prospective juror Tuesday.If Gendron is convicted, his lawyers will try to persuade jurors to spare him from execution. Life imprisonment is typically the alternative.“At trial, we will offer mitigating evidence about Payton that the jury needs to consider in making its decision,” his lawyers said in a statement.
“Nothing we say or do is intended to be disrespectful or insensitive to the victims, the survivors, or their loved ones.”Gendron spoke to his defense team and took notes while lawyers and U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo interviewed people on Tuesday. One individual said she didn't want to be on the jury partly because of the stress of watching a video Gendron livestreamed during the shooting.Another said other countries might respond to such an attack by “stoning” the offender.
He said he could fairly weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors if the trial reaches a death penalty phase.Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told The Associated Press that Gendron's lawyers at trial will try to reveal “almost every aspect of his life before he committed his crime and even after he committed his crime” to try to keep him off death row.Racist conspiracy theories played a role in the attackOn May 14, 2022, Gendron, then 18, drove over 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Conklin, a predominantly white, rural town, to Buffalo. He fired around 60 shots from a semiautomatic rifle at supermarket employees and shoppers. For Wayne Jones Sr., discussing the horrific supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, in which a white supremacist killed 10 people, including Jones' mother, Celestine Chaney, has taken over much of his life these past four years.He can numbly list talking points for media and gun violence panels.
But thinking about her absence each day is one reason Jones does not want to see Payton Gendron sentenced to death.“I really think that he should just sit and have to think about it year after year after year and just be miserable,” said Jones, who plans to attend the trial. “When I was younger, I probably was more prone to say ‘kill him.’ But, at this point, I mean, he's still got well another 20 to 30 years of appeals.”The final phase of jury selection began Tuesday in the federal trial in which Gendron faces a potential death penalty if convicted. The attack at the Tops Friendly Market in 2022 is believed to be the deadliest hate-motivated shooting targeting Black people in the U.S.
by a lone gunman in the past century.Gendron has pleaded not guilty to two dozen federal hate crime charges and more than a dozen firearms charges. Life imprisonment is typically the alternative to death in a federal capital murder case. Gendron is already spending life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges in a 2023 trial where he tearfully admitted to the crimes and renounced his past views.His defense team does not dispute his guilt.
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