A self-identified communist who killed 10 black people during a mass shooting in 2022 has complained that the jury in his federal hate crime case is too white.
Three years ago, then-18-year-old Payton S. Gendron entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and purposefully gunned down black shoppers, killing 10 people.
He was later identified by the media as a white supremacist based on what he’d written in his manifesto. However, in his manifesto, he also admitted to having been “deep into communist ideology” as a kid. This part of the manifesto was completely ignored by the press.
And though he admitted to having “moved farther to the right” as he got older, he still claimed to identify as “mild-moderate authoritarian left.”
Following the shooting, he pleaded guilty to all state charges and was sentenced on Feb. 15, 2023, to 11 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Buffalo supermarket mass shooter Payton Gendron is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge tells him “You’ll never see the light of day as a free man ever again” pic.twitter.com/i9iuLvCgym
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 15, 2023
On the federal level, meanwhile, he was hit with a 27-count indictment including 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill three injured individuals, one hate crimes count for attempting to kill additional black people, and 13 counts related to firearm use in the hate crimes.
The Biden Department of Justice announced last year that it was seeking the death penalty against him.
A year later, Gendron’s attorneys told a federal judge on Thursday that the hate crime charges against him should be dropped because the jury that indicted him had too many white people.
The attorneys specifically argued in a court filing that black and Hispanic people were “systemically and significantly underrepresented” in the lists that were used to select jurors for the case,” according to the Associated Press via NBC News.
“To illustrate this point, the grand jury that indicted Payton Gendron was drawn from a pool from which approximately one third of the [b]lack persons expected and one third of the Hispanic/Latino persons expected,” the filing read.
It didn’t help, they added, that the data sources that were used by a vendor to piece the lists together weren’t preserved.
“We don’t know what the vendor did,” the attorneys wrote. “More importantly, the vendor doesn’t know what he did.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Higgins opposed the motion on the grounds that the issue constitutes a “technical violation” at worst.
“In a written filing, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Gendron didn’t prove a systematic underrepresentation that was caused by the district’s jury plan,” according to the AP.
“Any disparities in the racial makeup were within accepted guidance, they wrote, and not caused by the selection process, which draws from voter, driver, tax, disability and unemployment rolls,” the AP’s reporting continued.
All this comes after Gendron’s attorneys already tried, in an early filing, to argue that their client should be exempt from the death penalty because he was “only” 18 when he committed the shootings.
Reacting to this story, critics were confused but had some theories, including the theory that the punk kid is trying every sleazy tactic in the book to avoid the death penalty, and also the theory that this white supremacist communist is just a nutter.
Look:
Is he trying to go to prison for MORE time?… I don’t get it
— ROC Monster (@roc_monster) August 14, 2025
And if the jury had been less white, he would have wanted the charges dropped because he has a right to a jury ”of his peers”.
— Chris Beij (@chrisisb) August 15, 2025
Does he really think black people on a jury are going to work in his favor??? All of his victims are black. This guy’s brain is like pudding.
— Tommy (@TommyTimbertoes) August 14, 2025
Perhaps an insanity plea would be more effective? He goes into a store because it’s in a black neighborhood, 10 black people, avoids shooting whites; b. a predominantly white jury sends him to jail for life; c. now he says there should have been MORE blacks on the jury!
— Stanley Scism (@skscism) August 16, 2025
The other possibility is that Gendron’s still as much of a communist/Marxist now as he’d been as a child, which would explain his distaste for a jury that’s “too white” …
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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