In a Friday afternoon announcement, the Biden Administration crossed the Rubicon when it said that it would seek the death penalty in the case of Payton Gendron. He killed 10 people in a racially motivated shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022. Gendron, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, has already been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in a state criminal case.
His lawyer had told the feds that Gendron would plead guilty to the various federal charges brought by the Justice Department if the department would take the death penalty off the table. But none of that seems to have mattered to an administration that once touted its abolitionist credentials.
