BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Jury selection has begun in the federal death penalty case against Payton Gendron, the man accused in the racist mass shooting at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo on May 14, 2022.
65 potential jurors checked in Monday morning for what is expected to be a lengthy and gut-wrenching trial. Their first task was filling out a detailed questionnaire.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, but I was there as U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo greeted the first batch of jurors.
Gendron was in court Monday morning as well. He has not been present for previous proceedings. Monday morning, he was wearing a navy golf shirt and glasses, his hair very short, and he was not shackled.
Family members of some of the victims were also present for the morning proceeding.
Vilardo told potential jurors they will be asked to determine Gendron's guilt in committing hate crimes with a firearm and then, if they find him guilty, whether he should face life in prison or be executed.
As jury selection got underway, anti-death penalty activists gathered outside in Niagara Square.
"He's been convicted or pled guilty in the state of New York. He's been sentenced to 11 life sentences without parole plus 90 years. He's not going anywhere. He'll spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. So what more punishment can we enact?" Paul McQuillen, chairman of the Western New York Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said.
"We got to let God have his way here," Murray Holman of the Stop the Violence Coalition said. "I understand that it's going to be about money, but maybe they should take the funding that they're doing here and put it back to the families and get resources and information to educate our whole community."
The trial against Gendron is not expected to begin until at least October.
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