Justice · Buffalo capital trial

Already imprisoned for life, Buffalo gunman faces federal death-penalty case

Payton Gendron is already serving life without parole. A separate federal prosecution now entering in-person jury selection seeks execution, but federal guilt remains undecided.

Aired Written 6 min read40 sources

Follow via RSS

Transcript · LOADING

Story trackerDay 1

1 report23 outlets40 sources2 videos

  • No dated events yet
  1. Update 1Already imprisoned for life, Buffalo gunman faces federal death-penalty caseYou are here

Payton Gendron is already serving life without parole for the Buffalo supermarket attack. The federal government is nevertheless taking him to trial with a different punishment in view: execution. In-person jury selection began on October 13, 2026, in a prosecution that must still establish federal guilt before a death sentence can be considered. The existing state judgment is not a federal verdict. 18 25 5

Prospective jurors began appearing at Buffalo’s Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse for voir dire—the questioning used to determine who can serve. Local reporting described this as the final, in-person phase of selection and a search expected to stretch over weeks. October 13 was not the start of opening statements, nor did it establish that a jury had been completed. 5 6 11

The first day showed the difficulty of selecting people to hear a capital case about an attack already deeply embedded in public memory. Capital punishment and prospective jurors’ exposure to coverage dominated the questioning, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported. An AP account carried by WBEN said one prospective juror described becoming physically ill when thinking about white supremacists. 6 22

Three potential jurors were retained for further consideration. That is a measure of first-day progress, not a count of sworn jurors or the entire pool. The distinction matters: people who survive an initial round of questioning have not necessarily been selected to decide the case. 22

Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the federal hate-crime and firearm charges. No current account establishes a change to that plea. His admissions in state court do not remove the federal prosecution’s obligation to prove its case. 2

The government is actively seeking death

The death penalty is more than a theoretical maximum here. On January 12, 2024, federal prosecutors filed a formal Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty in United States v. Payton Gendron, No. 22-CR-109-LJV. Invoking the federal capital-sentencing statute, the notice says the circumstances of Counts 11–20 justify death upon conviction. 25

“will seek the sentence of death for these offenses”

United States government, death-penalty notice 25

Those ten counts are identified in a defense filing as the indictment’s only capital counts. The government’s decision to pursue death is therefore concrete, but its success is not: conviction and the further findings required under federal law remain necessary. Jury selection is a step toward those decisions, not their outcome. 25 26

The federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment on July 14, 2022. According to the Justice Department’s victim-notification record, it contains fourteen hate-crime counts and thirteen firearm counts. Ten hate-crime counts concern deaths; three concern attempted killings of the three injured people; and one alleges attempts to kill additional Black people in and around the Tops grocery store. The available indictment summary does not establish the complete wording or subcategories of the firearm offenses. 4

The attack occurred on May 14, 2022, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket on Buffalo’s East Side. Ten Black people were killed and three people were injured. Racial targeting is central to the federal charges, including the count concerning additional intended victims around the store. 21 18 4

Prosecutors say Gendron planned the attack for months, ABC News reported. In this federal proceeding, that remains a prosecution allegation to be weighed with the evidence—not a finding already delivered by the jury now being selected. 1

The state judgment is already in place

Gendron pleaded guilty to state terrorism and murder charges on November 28, 2022. On February 15, 2023, he received life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for hate-motivated domestic terrorism and each of ten first-degree murder counts. Those are established state outcomes, separate from the unresolved federal charges. 20 18 7

That separation explains the unusual stakes of this trial. It is not deciding whether the state sentence currently offers Gendron a route to parole; it does not. The federal prosecution could instead add a sentence of death. Describing the proceeding simply as another trial of a convicted killer misses both what has already been decided and what has not.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo presides over the federal case in the Western District of New York. An appellate proceeding preceded the current selection: the Second Circuit’s opinion header records argument on May 20, 2026, and a decision on July 27, 2026. The available opinion text does not establish the holding or its effect on requested discovery concerning race discrimination in capital authorization. It provides no basis to say the appeals court approved or rejected such a claim. 28 14

The immediate task is completing the jury. Neither an opening-statements date nor a dated next court session has been verified. The precise death-penalty questions, questionnaire process and expected completion date also remain unestablished. Reporting that selection may take weeks is not a court calendar. 5 11 22

More than four years after the attack, the prosecution returns the deaths of ten people and the injuries of three others to court. The state punishment is already in place. What began on October 13 is the selection of the people who will decide the separate federal case—and, if the required conditions are met, whether its punishment should be death. 4 18 25

Sources

ABC News: Burden of Proof: Tuesday, October 13, 2026. 1 Fox News: NEW DETAILS into SHOCKING Six Flags rollercoaster death. 2

Associated Press: Final jury selection begins in federal hate crimes trial over Buffalo, NY, supermarket shooting. 3 Justice Department: Victim Notification — United States v. Payton Gendron. 4 The Buffalo News: Jury selection begins in Buffalo Tops mass shooting trial. 5

Buffalo Toronto Public Media: Death penalty, pretrial exposure dominate first day of Gendron jury selection. 6 13WHAM: Jury selection begins in federal death penalty trial of Buffalo Tops mass shooter. 7 ABC News: Potential jurors in Buffalo mass shooter’s federal trial face death penalty questions. 8

ABC News: Jury selection to begin in federal hate crimes trial over supermarket shooting. 9 Buffalo Toronto Public Media: Jury selection underway in Peyton Gendron federal trial. 10 Spectrum News: Final jury selection begins in Buffalo shooter federal trial. 11 WBEN: Federal case against Tops shooter Payton Gendron begins Tuesday. 12

Justice Department: United States District Court document. 13 Second Circuit: United States Court of Appeals opinion. 14 CNN: Buffalo shooting: 10 people killed in a racially motivated mass shooting at a supermarket, police say. 15 Justice Department: United States District Court complaint. 16 Justice Department: United States v. Gendron. 17

Reuters: Buffalo mass shooting gunman apologizes, sentenced to life without parole. 18 Associated Press: Buffalo supermarket gunman to face death penalty in hate crimes case. 19 CNN: Buffalo grocery store mass shooter pleads guilty to terrorism and murder charges in racist attack. 20 Wikipedia: 2022 Buffalo shooting. 21

WBEN: Jury selection begins in federal death penalty trial of Tops mass shooter. 22 13WHAM: Jury selection beginning in Buffalo Tops shooting federal trial, separately supplied URL. 23 WKBW: Racist Tops mass shooter says there would be too few Black people on his jury. 24

Federal court record: Case 1:22-cr-00109-LJV, Document 125, filed January 12, 2024. 25 Federal court record: Document 180. 26 CNN: Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty against supermarket gunman, a first for Biden administration. 27 vLex: United States v. Gendron, August 2, 2024. 28

CBS News: Buffalo shooter who killed 10 at Tops supermarket to face death penalty in federal case. 29 ABC News: Justice Department to pursue death penalty against Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron. 30 NPR: U.S. will seek death penalty for gunman who killed 10 at Buffalo supermarket. 31 The Washington Post: Justice Dept. announces whether to seek death penalty for Buffalo gunman. 32

Leagle: United States v. Gendron, No. 25-2570. 33 Benchlight: Opinion — United States v. Gendron. 34 CaseMine: United States v. Gendron, 25-2570. 35 Justice Department: United States v. Gendron. 36

Court documents hosted by Courthouse News: 25-2570. 37 BACKGROUND. 38 25-2570-cr. 39 Federal court record: Document 179. 40

As aired 19 lines
  1. Federal prosecutors are seeking execution for a gunman already serving life without parole.
  2. In-person jury selection has begun in Payton Gendron's federal case over the supermarket attack that killed ten Black people. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
  3. What must this prosecution still decide before it can impose a death sentence?
  4. Prospective jurors began appearing at Buffalo's Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse on October thirteenth. This is the final, in-person phase of jury selection, with questioning expected to stretch over weeks. Opening statements come later.
  5. Three potential jurors were retained for further consideration on the first day. They still have to make it through selection before they can serve.
  6. Capital punishment and what prospective jurors had already heard about the attack dominated the questioning. One man said thinking about white supremacists made him physically ill.
  7. Gendron faces federal hate-crime and firearm charges before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo. The jury selected for this proceeding will have to decide those charges, even though Gendron has already admitted guilt in state court.
  8. Federal prosecutors formally committed to seeking death on January twelfth, twenty twenty-four. Their notice covers Counts eleven through twenty, the indictment's only capital counts. A death sentence would require conviction and the further findings required under federal law.
  9. The state sentence already keeps Gendron in prison without any possibility of parole. The federal prosecution puts execution among the possible punishments. Prosecutors must still win their case before a federal jury can consider that outcome.
  10. A federal grand jury returned the twenty-seven-count indictment on July fourteenth, twenty twenty-two. It contains fourteen hate-crime counts and thirteen firearm counts.
  11. Ten hate-crime counts concern the people killed. Three concern attempted killings of the injured people. One alleges attempts to kill additional Black people in and around Tops. The remaining thirteen counts are firearm charges.
  12. Ten Black people were killed and three people were injured at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket on Buffalo's East Side. The attack happened on May fourteenth, twenty twenty-two. Racial targeting is central to the federal hate-crime prosecution.
  13. Prosecutors say Gendron planned the attack for months. The federal jury will have to weigh that allegation along with the other evidence.
  14. Gendron also livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch. The platform shut down the stream in under two minutes.
  15. Gendron pleaded guilty to state terrorism and murder charges on November twenty-eighth, twenty twenty-two. He received life without parole on February fifteenth, twenty twenty-three. Federal jury questioning began October thirteenth, twenty twenty-six, with his federal not-guilty plea still in place.
  16. The state court imposed life without parole for hate-motivated domestic terrorism and each of ten first-degree murder counts. Those sentences explain why the federal case carries a different immediate stake for Gendron: whether he could face execution while already imprisoned for life.
  17. The Second Circuit also heard an appeal in this case on May twentieth, twenty twenty-six, and issued its decision on July twenty-seventh.
  18. The next step is completing the jury. No date has been announced for opening statements. Federal jurors must then decide guilt, followed by punishment if the required conditions are met.
  19. More than four years after the attack, the people whose relatives were killed and the three injured survivors face another court proceeding. Gendron's state judgment leaves him no possibility of parole. His unresolved federal case could add a sentence of death.

Sources

40 sources23 outlets2 videos

Source map

Follow the evidence behind this report. The map shows its connections; the links below open the sources cited in this article.

Source map loads as you read.

Explore the full newsroom map ↗

Revision log

  1. r1First published.