Current:Home > ScamsMass shooting at Buffalo supermarket now Justice Department’s first death penalty case under Garland-VaTradeCoin
Mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket now Justice Department’s first death penalty case under Garland
lotradecoin scam prevention tips View Date:2024-12-25 22:37:28
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a few months after he took office, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium to halt federal executions — a stark contrast after his predecessor carried out 13 in six months. Under Garland’s watch and a president who vowed to abolish the death penalty, the Justice Department took on no new death penalty cases.
That changed Friday as federal prosecutors said they would seek capital punishment for a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. The decision doesn’t change the halt on federal executions, but Garland’s first approval of a new capital prosecution opens a new chapter in the long and complicated history of the death penalty in the U.S.
Those complexities have been on full display in recent years. President Joe Biden campaigned in part on a promise to abolish it but has taken few concrete steps to do so. The Justice Department has pulled back significantly on the use of capital punishment under Garland’s leadership, but also has shown a continued willingness to use it in certain cases.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates didn’t take issue with the decision in the Buffalo case Friday, saying the president has discussed his views on the issue and would leave individual cases to the appropriate authorities. The Justice Department, in keeping with its practice on ongoing cases, did not explain its decision.
“It’s a little hard to identify a consistent approach,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska. “This Justice Department is far more reluctant to use the death penalty, certainly than the Trump administration was, and far more cognizant of the problems, but it’s not willing to throw away the death penalty altogether.”
Under Garland, the Justice Department has reversed more than two dozen decisions to seek the death penalty, including for alleged gang members accused in the deaths of two teens in New York. Garland has authorized the continuation of only two death penalty cases he inherited, including another mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue motivated by hate.
Robert Bowers was sentenced to death in August for carrying out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history when he shot and killed 11 worshipers in 2018. The other case was against Sayfullo Saipov, a 35-year-old Islamic extremist convicted of maniacally racing a truck along a popular New York City bike path, killing eight people and maiming others. A split among jurors meant he was not sentenced to the death penalty.
In Buffalo, 20-year-old Payton Gendron pleaded guilty to driving across the state to target a largely Black neighborhood and carrying out the attack with a semi-automatic weapon marked with racial slurs and phrases including “The Great Replacement,” a reference to a conspiracy theory that there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people.
“It’s a mass shooting, and mass shootings have only increased over the years and gotten worse. It was also racially motivated, and that seems to be a huge factor here,” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who studies the death penalty. “Garland is sort of indicating what he thinks is important, what would drive him to ask for the death penalty.”
In changes made under Garland, the Justice Department’s manual instructs prosecutors to give more weight to cases involving the most harm to the country.
Still, the department chose not to pursue the death penalty in another racist mass shooting targeting Hispanic people that left 23 people dead in an El Paso Wal-Mart. In that case, 24-year-old shooter Patrick Crusius was diagnosed with a severe mental health condition, which may have played a role.
There’s been no public evidence of mental illness so far in the Gendron case. But courts are increasingly questioning severe punishments for young defendants amid new research on brain development, said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Gendron has also pleaded guilty and expressed “sincere remorse,” and been sentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole, she said.
“This federal trial will take a long time and they will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in pursuit of the very same result that exists today, which is that Mr. Gendron will die in prison,” Bedard said.
Legal Defense Fund President Janai Nelson condemned the decision, saying that the history of the death penalty has been rife with racial discrimination. “Justice for the many Black people that were killed in this horrendous attack does not begin with pursuit of the death penalty,” she said. “In times rife with extreme violence, we cannot resort to capital punishment as a solution.”
Death penalty opponents have long argued Biden has done little to fulfill his campaign promise and want him to commute sentences of those on federal death row. During his presidency, the Justice Department has fought vigorously in courts to maintain the sentences of death row inmates, an Associated Press review of dozens of legal filings found. And while the moratorium on federal executions Garland announced in 2021 means no federal inmates will be put to death while it’s in place, there have been no public signs that a review of execution policies that he ordered at the same time is nearing completion.
In Buffalo, the victims’ loved ones have had different feelings on whether they thought prosecutors should pursue the death penalty. The death penalty decision-making process calls for a lengthy review involving the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case and a review committee.
“Garland is extremely exacting and meticulous and nonpartisan and careful,” Berger said. “Whether or not you agree with his ultimate decision, he’s going to play the process exactly by the book.”
veryGood! (65)
Related
- Worst. Tariffs. Ever. (update)
- Climate change makes heat waves, storms and droughts worse, climate report confirms
- Ariana Madix Makes Out With Daniel Wai at Coachella After Tom Sandoval Breakup
- COP27 climate talks start in Egypt, as delegates arrive from around the world
- 'Mary': How to stream, what biblical experts think about Netflix's new coming
- Here's Why Love Is Blind's Paul and Micah Broke Up Again After Filming
- EPA seeks to mandate more use of ethanol and other biofuels
- Pregnant Lindsay Lohan and Husband Bader Shammas Spotted in NYC After Baby Shower
- When is the 'Survivor' Season 47 finale? Here's who's left; how to watch and stream part one
- Emma Watson Shares Rare Insight Into Her Private Life in Birthday Message
Ranking
- The brewing recovery in Western North Carolina
- Inside Aaron Carter’s Rocky Journey After Child Star Success
- When people are less important than beaches: Puerto Rican artists at the Whitney
- A record high number of dead trees are found as Oregon copes with an extreme drought
- She grew up in an Arizona church community. Now, she claims it was actually a religious cult.
- Succession's Dagmara Domińczyk Lost Her Own Father Just Days After Filming Logan's Funeral
- Kate Spade 24-Hour Flash Deal: Get This $330 Backpack for Just $83
- Kelly Clarkson Shares Daughter River Was Getting Bullied at School Over Her Dyslexia
Recommendation
-
Singaporean killed in Johor expressway crash had just paid mum a surprise visit in Genting
-
Ariana Madix Makes Out With Daniel Wai at Coachella After Tom Sandoval Breakup
-
Mark Consuelos Reveals Why Daughter Lola Doesn't Love His Riverdale Fame
-
Western New York gets buried under 6 feet of snow in some areas
-
The burial site of the people Andrew Jackson enslaved was lost. The Hermitage says it is found
-
Singer Moonbin, Member of K-Pop Band ASTRO, Dead at 25
-
Here's what happened on Friday at the U.N.'s COP27 climate talks
-
Singer Moonbin, Member of K-Pop Band ASTRO, Dead at 25