Shooter who killed 10 Black people in Buffalo NY says grand jury was too white

USA Today

2 days ago

A white supremacist who shot and killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, asked a judge to dismiss his federal case because not enough Black and Hispanic people were on the grand jury that indicted him, a motion filed by his attorneys on Aug. 14 said.
Lawyers for Payton Gendron, the gunman who is serving 11 life sentences on state charges in connection with the 2022 massacre, said Black and Hispanic people are "systematically" underrepresented in the Southern District of New York's jury pools, violating the constitutional rights of defendants, the motion said.
In response, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Gendron's lawyers failed to prove there is a systematic underrepresentation in the jury pool and urged the judge to reject the motion. The judge has not filed a decision as of Friday, Aug. 15.
The back-and-forth comes as Gendron is expected to go on trial next year for federal hate crime charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty, which federal prosecutors vowed to pursue. New York state, where Gendron pleaded guilty to 15 state charges, including multiple counts of murder, abolished capital punishment in 2004.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron traveled to Buffalo and opened fire in a busy supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others. The victims ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included a church deacon, the grocery store's security guard, a man shopping for a birthday cake and a grandmother of nine.
Gendron, who was 18 when he carried out the attack, wrote in documents posted online that he picked the grocery store because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
What was the makeup of the grand jury?
In their filing, Gendron's attorneys say the grand jury that indicted their client was drawn from a pool that was missing "one third of the Black persons expected and one third of the Hispanic/Latino persons expected."
The filing did not include the exact makeup of the grand jury, but the judge said at a hearing this week that the addition of two more Black people on the 60-person grand jury would have balanced the panel, according to the Associated Press.
Gendron's attorneys also said that the district largely delegates the process of jury sourcing to an outside vendor that failed to properly document its procedures. The U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its jury pool.
Diversity in jury pools have been longstanding issues plaguing the criminal justice system. Advocates have called for changes to the jury pool selection processes on local, state and federal levels, such reducing a reliance on voter rolls, which experts say can exclude some racial groups.
Gendron previously asked that his trial be moved, citing jury concerns
This week's motion was not the first time Gendron's attorneys raised concerns over the demographic makeup of those weighing his federal case.
In April, his attorneys filed a motion requesting that his trial be moved from Buffalo to New York City so it could be decided by an impartial, racially diverse jury. His attorneys also requested that the judge take the death penalty off the table, taking issue with the jury selection process.
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo rejected the motion to remove the death penalty, but has not decided on whether to move the trial to New York City.
Gendron's federal trial is currently scheduled for June 2026.
Cotnributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg