Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron facing death penalty despite NY not having capital punishment

Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, may be facing his own death after federal prosecutors announced Friday they intend to seek capital punishment.

It marks the first time the Justice Department under President Joe Biden has authorized a new attempt at the death penalty. While the state of New York does not have capital punishment, the department received an opportunity to seek the penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case against Gendron.

The 20-year-old is already serving a life sentence without parole after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism related to the 2022 attack.

He traveled over 200 miles from his home in Conklin, N.Y., to a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo’s East Side, a predominantly Black neighborhood, to carry out the shooting.