US wants gunman in racist shooting to get death sentence

The US government wants to execute a white man who killed 10 people in a racist shooting in 2022.

The US government, under President Biden, approved the death penalty for the shooter because of the impact on the victims.

Last year, 20-year-old Payton Gendron was given a life sentence in prison for the shooting in Buffalo, New York.

Gendron confessed to killing people that day because of their race.

The justice department explained why they think the death penalty should be used in a court paper on Friday. President Joe Biden does not want to give the death penalty. This is different from the government before him.

The agency said in court that Gendron deserved the sentence because he purposely targeted the victims based on their race when he shot at a grocery store on May 14, 2022.

Ten black people were killed in a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. The people who were hurt were between 32 and 86 years old. They included eight people who were shopping at the grocery store, a security guard at the store, and a church deacon who drove people to the store.

The person who shot people that day had planned it and wanted to hurt Black people because he didn’t like them.

Merrick Garland, the person in charge of the justice department in the US, stopped federal executions for a while in 2021. He wants to check the procedures first. This document says that the review is finished.

New York state doesn’t have the death penalty, but the shooter is being charged with hate crime and gun charges in a different federal case. In those federal cases, the government can ask for the death penalty.

Even though New York doesn’t use the death penalty, Governor Kathy Hochul supports that choice.

“This follows the rules set by the Department of Justice for what is considered a crime eligible for the death penalty,” Ms. Hochul said at a press meeting on Friday.

The lawyers representing the victims and their families in the shooting case are glad that the Department of Justice wants to seek the death penalty.

The lawyers said that the decision made by the Department of Justice today will help the victims and their families feel some relief and a sense of closure. “They have been asking for fair treatment for almost two years, and today they are getting closer to it. ”

The person who shot people was 18 years old. They drove more than 320km to a mostly black area and then attacked.

He says he is a fascist and believes in white supremacy in a long document he wrote before the shooting. He admitted to committing murder and terrorism in 2022.

At his punishment, the judge told the shooter that his hateful and evil ideas have no place in our society.

Judge Susan Eagan from Erie County said that there will be no compassion, no tolerance, and no opportunities for a second chance for you. “You will never be a free man and see the sun again. “