BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Attorneys for the Tops mass shooter, Payton Gendron, are working to spare him from the death penalty in the federal case against him.
In new court documents obtained by the 7 News I-Team, Gendron's attorneys argue "The government's decision to seek the death penalty against Payton Gendron is arbitrary."
Watch: Defense team argues against hate crime charges for Buffalo mass shooting gunman
Attorneys say Gendron, who shot and killed ten black people on May 14, 2022, was treated differently by the federal government than other defendants who have faced the death penalty for similar charges.
"The government’s decision to seek the death penalty against [Gendron] has an unjustifiable basis," his attorneys write. "The Attorney General authorized a capital prosecution against Payton Gendron even as the Department of Justice withdrew previously filed notices of the government’s intent to seek the death penalty against similarly situated Black and Hispanic defendants..."
Part of this supplement to the motion to strike the death penalty as a possible punishment is redacted.
The attorneys argue race is an issue, without blatantly saying it.
"[At least a dozen death row inmates] had been charged with terrorizing communities by committing multiple, brutally violent murders. And yet, only the White men are still facing execution, while the African American and Hispanic men, on the Attorney General’s recommendation, are no longer subject to being put to death at the federal government’s hands.
Gendron's attorneys are quick to point to President Biden's stance on the death penalty as an issue as well.
"Former President Biden, too, was sensitive to the role race had played in capital cases, and federal criminal cases generally, and campaigned on a promise to end the federal death penalty. His campaign had faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats that his 1994 crime bill “led to mass incarceration and tilted the system unfairly against African Americans.”"
Gendron's defense team was just in court last week, where his attorneys argued one of the charges against him should be dropped.
His federal trial is expected to start in September.
In February 2023, Gendron was sentenced to life without parole on the state charges he faced in connection to the shooting. He pleaded guilty to those charges in November 2022, which included one count of first-degree domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate. Former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said Gendron was the first person in New York State to be indicted and convicted on that specific charge.
