The National Lawyers Guild’s Buffalo Chapter urged Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to drop the death penalty for the racist shooter who killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket in May 2022.
The progressive lawyers group, represented by John N. Lipsitz and Joseph A. Kelemen, wrote a letter to Garland, saying: “Is a show trial really necessary to reveal the nature of this tragedy?” They pointed out that the shooter, Payton Gendron, had already admitted to state murder charges.
They also mentioned that the Justice Department’s choice to pursue the death penalty for Gendron was the first and only time the Biden administration had done so. They reminded Garland that President Biden himself was against the death penalty when he ran for president in 2000.
They asked: “Why do it now?” They concluded that it was a political move to show the administration’s dedication to fighting racism here and elsewhere. They argued, on the contrary, that using the death penalty in this country was a betrayal of our commitment to human rights and the protection of marginalized and poor people.
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The Justice Department did not comment on the letter. Gendron, who was 18 when he committed the massacre, drove over 200 miles from his home in the Binghamton area to execute his attack after posting a racist rant online. He used an AR-15 rifle to shoot Black people in the parking lot and inside the supermarket on Jefferson Avenue. Gendron confessed to state murder charges in November 2022.
He also faces federal murder and hate crimes charges. Garland decided to seek the death penalty in the Gendron case, and the Justice Department announced it in court papers filed in Buffalo in January.
The Justice Department said in the court filing that the case justified “a sentence of death” under federal law. They listed several factors that led them to seek the death penalty, such as the attack: Involved multiple killings and attempted killings. Took the lives of several people who were especially vulnerable due to their age and infirmity.
Required substantial planning and premeditation. Endangered the lives of others. Included acts of violence that aimed to provoke violent action by others. Happened at the supermarket on Buffalo’s East Side because the shooter wanted to increase the number of Black victims.
The Justice Department attorneys wrote that Gendron committed “racially motivated killings, showing his expressed bias, hatred and contempt toward Black persons.”
The local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which calls the national group “the oldest progressive bar association in the U.S.” on its Facebook page, had a completely different view.
They said that the death penalty should be abolished, and that mass shootings and racial hatred should be addressed by banning military-style weapons and implementing economic policies that offer hope to those who might otherwise resort to white supremacy.
They wrote in their letter to Garland, dated Feb. 15: “Putting this man to death will only hide and distract from the government’s failure to address the root causes of this tragedy. In short, putting Payton Gendron to death will achieve nothing.”
