Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Among the interested parties who filed in a federal courtroom for Tuesday's start of the federal charges against Tops' mass shooter Payton Gendron was Paul McQuillen.
What brought McQuillen to Judge Lawrence Vilardo's eighth floor courtroom in the Robert H. Jackson Courthouse in downtown Buffalo wasn't idle curiosity
Rather, McQuillen - chairman of the WNY Coalition Against the Death Penalty - is there to witness the beginning of a long legal road that may end up with Gendron facing the federal death penalty.
"We are against the death penalty in all circumstances," McQuillen said.
Gendron, 23, is facing 27 federal charges, with 20 of them carrying enough legal weight to have him facing the death sentence.
All of the charges are in connection with his racially-motivated May 14, 2022 shooting spree at a Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue that left 10 dead and three injured.
Gendron, three years ago, plead guilty to state charges and was sentenced to life in jail with no parole.
Under the federal charges, a jury must first find Gendron guilty and then, in a separate phase, determine whether he faces the death penalty or life in jail with no parole.
Vetting of potential jurors, Tuesday, in Vilardo's court room. That process may take several weeks to complete and land a 12-person, 6 alternate jury.
The actual trial is expected to start in early December and last into 2027's first quarter, Vilardo said.
The federal trial is the first in Buffalo's history where a possible death penalty is the final sentence.
It is the first federal death penalty case in New York state since 1963.
"To me, the death penalty is the lowest common demoninator," McQuillen said. "It is the most anticipated, pre-medicated form of murder."
And, it is expensive.
According to American Civil Liberties Union, a death penalty prisoner costs a state between 2.5 times and 5 times more than life in jail with no parole.
From trial to execution, it costs more than $3 million while life in prison with no parole costs approximately $1.1 million.
"The death penalty does nothing but diminish our legal system," McQuillen said.
The WNY Coalition Against Death Penalty is pushing for life in prison with no parole for the shooter
The WNY Coalition Against Death Penalty is pushing for life in prison with no parole for the shooter
