Jury selection began Tuesday in Payton Gendron's federal hate-crimes trial.

The state case is over. Gendron pleaded guilty, and an Erie County judge sentenced him on Feb. 15, 2023, to life in prison without parole. The federal prosecution is not that case. A jury is not seated yet. Nothing in the federal indictment has been proved. If a jury convicts him, the government wants death, and life in prison is the other outcome. The next several weeks are about who is allowed to sit.

Jury selection began Tuesday morning, Oct. 13, 2026, in the federal hate-crimes trial of Payton Gendron, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported. 13WHAM reported the same start. WBEN reported the selection was set to begin at the Robert H. Jackson Federal Courthouse in downtown Buffalo. U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo is the judge on the case. He signed the March 2026 order keeping the trial in Buffalo, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York lists him on the hearings. WBEN reported that Vilardo has allowed graphic evidence, including video Gendron filmed, that was handled differently in the state case. Buffalo Toronto Public Media said a reporter was in the federal courthouse and that courthouse rules bar recording and photography in the courtroom.

The shooting was May 14, 2022, at the Tops Friendly Market at 1275 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. 13WHAM reported that Gendron drove there and opened fire in a racist attack that killed 10 Black people and injured several others, and that he streamed the attack on social media. Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported that 10 people, all Black, died. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the attack was live-streamed on the internet, that 10 Black people were killed, and that the people wounded were one Black person and two white people. WKBW reported that three others were hurt and survived, and that prosecutors said he fired 60 shots before Buffalo police took him into custody. 13WHAM did not give a number for the wounded. It said several others. The U.S. Attorney's Office and WKBW put that number at three.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said a federal grand jury returned a 27-count indictment on July 14, 2022. It described 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill the three injured people, one hate-crimes count alleging an attempt to kill additional Black people in and around the store, and 13 counts of using, carrying, or discharging a firearm in relation to the hate crimes. 13WHAM reported 27 federal charges, including hate crimes. WKBW reported a 27-count indictment. The Associated Press reported that Gendron has pleaded not guilty to two dozen federal hate-crime charges and more than a dozen firearms charges. Those descriptions do not match. The indictment the U.S. Attorney's Office describes is 14 hate-crime counts and 13 firearm counts, which is 27. The Associated Press's phrasing is a larger stack. He has not been convicted of any of the federal counts.

The state judgment is separate, and it is final. Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported that he pleaded guilty in the state case and is serving life with no chance of parole. 13WHAM reported that he is already serving life on the state charges. The file caption 13WHAM published, from his Feb. 15, 2023 sentencing, says he was sentenced that day in an Erie County courtroom to life in prison without parole for domestic terrorism motivated by hate and for each of the 10 counts of first-degree murder. WBEN reported he was 18 at the time of the attack and is now 23. A state guilty plea and a state life sentence do not prove a federal hate-crime count, and they do not decide a federal penalty.

13WHAM reported the jury logistics. About 1,200 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires over the summer. That pool was narrowed to about 700. The remaining prospects are being brought in groups of 70 for questioning by the prosecution and the defense. The goal is 12 jurors and six alternates. The court clerk told 13WHAM that could take six to eight weeks. WBEN reported that Vilardo predicted earlier this summer that seating 12 jurors and six alternates may take one month or longer. Six to eight weeks and a month or longer are not the same estimate. Both say this phase is long.

WKBW reported that on Monday, the day before selection started, Gendron's lawyers moved to dismiss the indictment. The filing says the petit jury pool fails to reflect a fair and reasonable cross-section of the community, and that African Americans remain underrepresented on the Western District of New York's jury lists. A motion is a request. No outlet used here has reported a ruling on it. WKBW reported that a separate 2025 request, to move the trial out of Buffalo, was denied. In that earlier filing, WKBW reported, the lawyers wrote that it was likely a large percentage of potential Black jurors would be excludable for cause. WBEN reported that it is believed, according to former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, that this is the first federal death-penalty case ever tried in Buffalo, and that the jury has to be unanimous in the guilt phase and in the penalty phase.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. 13WHAM reported he could face it if convicted. Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported that a conviction in the federal case could result in the death penalty. The Associated Press reported that life imprisonment is the usual alternative to death in a federal capital murder case. The state life sentence stays either way. The federal charges are still charges. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.