What to Know as Jury Selection Begins in Buffalo Federal Death-Penalty Trial
Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in the federal trial of Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who killed 10 people in the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting, a case in which jurors could impose the death penalty. The Guardian
Gendron faces more than two dozen federal hate-crime charges, which allege violence motivated by race, and over a dozen firearms charges. He is already serving life in prison on state murder charges for the same attack. Think of the state and federal cases as two separate tracks for the same attack, each with its own laws. His lawyers will not contest guilt in federal court. Their case will focus on persuading jurors to spare him execution.
The charges center on May 14, 2022. Gendron drove more than 200 miles from Conklin to Buffalo that day. At the Tops Friendly Markets grocery store on Jefferson Avenue, he fired around 60 shots from a semiautomatic rifle at employees and shoppers. All 10 people killed were Black. They ranged in age from 32 to 86.
The Justice Department identifies the federal prosecution as United States v. Payton Gendron. A federal complaint, the first formal accusation, was filed on June 15, 2022, in United States District Court. An indictment, the grand jury's formal charges, was returned on July 14, 2022. Arraignment, the hearing where a plea is entered, followed on July 18, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. Justice Department The indictment as announced then contained 27 counts in total, including 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. Justice Department It also included 13 counts of using, carrying, or discharging a firearm in relation to those hate crimes.
Pretrial litigation continued for more than two years after indictment. An oral argument on a motion to dismiss the indictment was held on Oct. 22, 2024, before Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo. A separate oral argument on a motion to dismiss Count 27 was held on March 12, 2025, before the same judge. Jury selection is now set to begin Tuesday, Oct. 13. 13NewsNow
The broader context here is narrow in law and wide in human impact. Guilt is not in dispute. The penalty is. With a state life sentence already imposed, the federal case turns on the added punishment federal law allows.
Looking to the weeks ahead, an uncontested-guilt strategy does not make a capital trial brief or simple. The argument over execution or life in prison becomes the trial itself. For the families and for Buffalo, the federal proceeding brings the May 2022 attack back into a courtroom, with attention on who was killed and which punishment the jury selects.
