Federal prosecutors declined Tuesday to hunt the death penalty for the alleged Walmart shooter who killed 23 shoppers in an El Paso branch of the shop in 2019.
The choice is consistent with the Department of Justice’s practice of not pursuing capital punishment in federal cases since President Joe Biden took office, in accordance with local reports.
Patrick Crusius is accused of driving 10 hours from Allen, Texas and casing the busy Walmart to be sure it was full of Hispanic people before gunning down 23 shoppers with an AK-47 and injuring 22 others on Aug. 3, 2019.
“The US of America hereby notifies the Court and Defendant Patrick Wood Crusius that the Government won’t seek the death penalty within the easy case,” stated the one-sentence filing, in accordance with El Paso Matters.
Crusius is facing federal hate crime charges in addition to murder charges for his actions and the case is scheduled to go before a judge in January next yr.
In a hate-filled manifesto posted online moments before the attack, the now 24-year-old complained of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” writing that he was “simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic alternative brought on by an invasion,” prosecutors claim.
The shooting got here during a busy back-to-school shopping day at the shop — a well-liked destination for residents of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, just across the US border from El Paso.
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The alleged killer does face the death penalty within the state case against him. No date has been set in that trial as Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Attorney Bill Hicks to be district attorney last month.
Former DA Yvonne Rosales had handled the case before that, but was forced out of office under accusations of incompetency and mishandling of multiple cases, including the Walmart shooting, the most important case in the town’s history.
Life in prison is the best punishment the feds could search for Crusius now that death by lethal injection is off the table.
Federal prosecutors declined Tuesday to hunt the death penalty for the alleged Walmart shooter who killed 23 shoppers in an El Paso branch of the shop in 2019.
The choice is consistent with the Department of Justice’s practice of not pursuing capital punishment in federal cases since President Joe Biden took office, in accordance with local reports.
Patrick Crusius is accused of driving 10 hours from Allen, Texas and casing the busy Walmart to be sure it was full of Hispanic people before gunning down 23 shoppers with an AK-47 and injuring 22 others on Aug. 3, 2019.
“The US of America hereby notifies the Court and Defendant Patrick Wood Crusius that the Government won’t seek the death penalty within the easy case,” stated the one-sentence filing, in accordance with El Paso Matters.
Crusius is facing federal hate crime charges in addition to murder charges for his actions and the case is scheduled to go before a judge in January next yr.
In a hate-filled manifesto posted online moments before the attack, the now 24-year-old complained of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” writing that he was “simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic alternative brought on by an invasion,” prosecutors claim.
The shooting got here during a busy back-to-school shopping day at the shop — a well-liked destination for residents of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, just across the US border from El Paso.
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The alleged killer does face the death penalty within the state case against him. No date has been set in that trial as Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Attorney Bill Hicks to be district attorney last month.
Former DA Yvonne Rosales had handled the case before that, but was forced out of office under accusations of incompetency and mishandling of multiple cases, including the Walmart shooting, the most important case in the town’s history.
Life in prison is the best punishment the feds could search for Crusius now that death by lethal injection is off the table.
