Jury selection begins in federal death penalty trial over Buffalo supermarket shooting
publishers 12articles 13first reported 13 Oct, 07:30 UTCdeveloping since 13 Oct · 7 editions
Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal hate-crimes trial of Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 people in a 2022 shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. The proceeding will determine whether Gendron, who is already serving life in prison on state murder convictions, should be sentenced to death.
Gendron faces more than two dozen federal hate-crime charges and over a dozen firearms charges. His lawyers do not plan to dispute his guilt and will instead present mitigating evidence in an effort to prevent his execution. In a statement, the federal public defender’s office said that Gendron will die in prison regardless of the federal trial’s outcome.
Shortly before jury selection, Gendron filed a motion seeking dismissal of the indictment, arguing that the jury pool would include too few Black jurors, according to WGRZ, WKBW and WIVB.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron, then 18, drove more than 200 miles from Conklin, New York, to the Buffalo supermarket and fired about 60 shots from a semiautomatic rifle at shoppers and employees. He surrendered as he left the store. He pleaded guilty to state murder charges in 2023.
Relatives of those killed and people affected by the attack have expressed differing views on capital punishment. Wayne Jones, whose mother Celestine Chaney was killed, said he would prefer Gendron remain imprisoned for life rather than be executed.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 7 articles, 1 with the publisher's own text; 6 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 6 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 12
- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 7, 1 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 6
- This version written
- 6 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
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