Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - On Monday, Sept. 18, a meeting will be held in Washington D.C. with the U.S. Attorney General's Office and the lawyers in the federal case surrounding Payton Gendron, the gunman in the Tops mass shooting on May 14, 2022 that killed 10 Black people in East Buffalo.
This scheduled meeting is to discuss whether or not the 19-year-old could face the death penalty upon being sentenced by New York State to multiple life in prison sentences without the possibility of parole.
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"Whether Peyton Gendron faces the death penalty or not, it's going to be determined by the U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland," explained Attorney John Elmore, who represents some of the families of the victims of the massacre.
"Gendron's lawyers will go to Washington, D.C. and meet with this capital committee and present a case for life. What they do is, is present whatever mitigating evidence that they have to convince the Attorney General's Office that the appropriate sentence would be life without the without the possibility of parole. For instance, they'll probably present the fact that Gendron pled guilty early in state court, and he's going to spend the rest of his life in jail. He's waived his rights to appeal, that he has saved the State of New York the expense and the victim's time and trauma of going through [a long] trial. That's probably the biggest argument that they'll have for life."
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Elmore also says the defense will probably mention the impact of social media, how it indoctrinated the shooter and influenced him.
While we will have to wait and see what happens following Sept. 18, Elmore knows that there have been 50 cases where somebody has actually been executed by the federal government since 1927.
"Even if there is a death penalty trial, and somebody gets convicted, there's several levels of appeal. Ultimately, after all the appeals have been exhausted, then the Attorney General's has to test to sign a death warrant for the execution to be carried forward."
Currently, the U.S. Attorney's Office has moratorium on the death penalty. Elmore mentions that President Biden ran his campaign as anti-death penalty.
"We're not going to know much after September 18, until the government makes their decision."
You can hear more analysis in the player below: