Quick decision on death penalty for Buffalo gunman urged by judge citing taxpayer expenses

'I also have an obligation to the taxpayers of this country to conserve and preserve as much as is reasonably possible their assets,' the judge said

A federal judge is urging the US Justice Department to decide soon whether they will seek the death penalty for the alleged Buffalo supermarket gunman, saying providing an attorney to a death-eligible defendant would be costly to taxpayers.

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old accused of executing the racially motivated shooting that killed 10 black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York last month appeared in court Thursday.

Gendron told US Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder that he has no job and only $16 to his name, prompting the judge to assign him ‘learned counsel,’ or attorneys with experience working death penalty cases.

‘I also have an obligation to the taxpayers of this country to conserve and preserve as much as is reasonably possible their assets,’ Judge Schroeder said, noting the government has spent ‘huge sums’ only to decide it would not seek the death penalty.

‘I would hope the Department of Justice would undertake steps that would reasonably bring about a quick decision,’ he said.

Joseph Tripi, the federal prosecutor, promised the decision would be made as quickly as possible.

Gendron is facing 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses in a criminal complaint by the US Justice Department. He has not entered a plea on any of the charges.

He made his first appearance in federal court one day after US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the 26 federal counts against him and met with the families of the victims in the May 14 attack.

Garland declined to say whether the department would seek the death penalty.

‘Gendron’s motive for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks,’ according to the criminal complaint filed in the Western District of New York.

He is accused of shooting 13 people at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, a city in western New York. Eleven of the people shot were black, as were all who died.

Authorities say he intentionally chose that area to target black people and that he drove 200 miles from his majority white hometown to execute his attack.

Gendron was already facing a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted on New York state murder, domestic terrorism and hate crime charges.

The charges against Gendron include 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of using a firearm to commit murder during and in retaliation to a crime of violence and three counts of using and discharging a firearm during and in retaliation to a crime of violence.

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