I just read that Q-Anon claims that the federal government put him up to it. Or maybe that he is a government agent. I also heard that in his initial hearing, he pleaded “Not guilty”.
I saw that as well. I mean, they caught him, right after he was observed committing the crime, with the weapon, and he live streamed the event, then he admitted he went there to kill people. Is he just gonna say “It wasn’t me.” WTF is “Not guilty” even an option here? Someone in law will need to explain this to me.
Doesn’t insanity (however it’s technically described) fall under Not Guilty? I have no idea if this is what’s happening, but he’s certainly getting legal advice, and I assume if the defense is going to be insanity, the plea needs to be Not Guilty in order to get a trial on the basis of that defense?
Isn’t it typical to initially plead “not guilty”? As I understand it, you can change it later. Not as easy to change a guilty plea. Is there any reason to plead guilty at an arraignment?
I’m no big-city lawyer, but the only reasons I can think of are an Alford plea or accepting a plea bargain.
Does plea bargaining usually happen at arraignment, though? I used to work for a criminal defense office (though not as a lawyer), and I don’t recall that being the case. This was 15 years ago, though, so my memory is hazy. ETA: Looks like they can happen at or before the arraignment, but the timeline here seems so tight that I can’t see there really being time for it.
Hey, it worked for Shaggy.
Probably self-defense. He was in imminent danger of bodily injury from all those black hands.
He was afraid that people would take his gun away and shoot him with it, so he was in fear for his life, so he shot them. Sounds legit, the McMichael defense in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Fact check. It’s wrong. He’s done it 400 times.
From the same article:
One in three American adults now believe that an effort is underway “to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains,” according to an Associated Press poll released this month. The poll also found that people who mostly watched right-wing media outlets like Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax were more likely to believe in replacement theory than those who watched CNN or MSNBC.
Not unless their goal was to go to prison/get death penalty. Even if you did plead guilty at arraignment, I can’t imagine a judge wouldn’t order a mental evaluation before accepting the plea.
You also have to remember these guys generally think of themselves as heroes, saving the white race. They could well think they may be found not guilty if they get the “right” jury.
Those wouldn’t happen at an arraignment tho.
Strange how numbers for stuff like this always seems to be around the same as numbers for the hard core Republican/Trump base.
The not guilty plea has been scornfully mentioned a lot, but it’s mandatory at this point in New York.
New York Criminal Procedure Law 220:10 (e)
(e) A defendant may not enter a plea of guilty to the crime of murder in the first degree as defined in section 125.27 of the penal law; provided, however, that a defendant may enter such a plea with both the permission of the court and the consent of the people when the agreed upon sentence is either life imprisonment without parole or a term of imprisonment for the class A-I felony of murder in the first degree other than a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
We’re way before any agreed upon sentence. The not guilty plea is automatic, not a character flaw.
I spent a few years working in the court system in a southern state, and they had a similar deal here.
Literally everyone pleaded not guilty at their first appearance. It didn’t matter if the defendant killed someone in cold blood in broad daylight in front of a hundred witnesses, with cameras capturing the deed from a hundred different angles. They still pleaded not guilty. Even people who had confessed to the police and were genuinely contrite about what they had done, pleaded not guilty at their first appearances.
These hearings are really meant for the judge to decide whether or not to set bail, more than anything else.
That’s what I was thinking may be the case. Thanks for clarifying what’s going on. Still, it just sounds weird when they say he “pleaded not guilty” - it makes it sound like the guy went before the judge and said he didn’t do it. It’s like he’s saying “I’m not guilty of this crime.”
It makes perfect sense to me, which is why I asked why would one enter a guilty plea in this early in the process? I didn’t realize it was automatic in New York. I mean, you don’t have much to lose, and the plea bargaining negotiations can begin and work itself out as you get closer to trial/through the process, or the defense can work out if an insanity defense is feasible or whatever other options are available.
You have to plead not guilty if you want your right to a trial, either before a judge or a jury.
When you are pleading “not guilty” you are saying “I want to make the prosecution prove my guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” And that is your absolute constitutional right.
Parents were clueless:
# ‘I lied to them for months’: Buffalo shooting suspect kept plans from family
Or if you have paywall problems use Microsoft News link:
This seems to put a pretty fine point on the shooter’s motivations:
Also:
The 19-year-old white man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, pleaded guilty Monday morning to more than a dozen related state charges.
Payton Gendron pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder, as well as charges of domestic terrorism motived by hate, attempted murder as a hate crime and criminal weapon possession.
Gendron faces a penalty of life without parole. He also is facing federal hate crime charges that could carry the death penalty. The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it will seek capital punishment.