FACES LIFE

U.S. Won’t Seek Death Penalty for Gunman in 2019 Texas Walmart Massacre

Federal prosecutors have not petitioned for the death penalty in a new case since the appointment of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The lone gunman who is accused of killing 23 people and leaving dozens wounded inside a crowded Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border during a 2019 mass shooting will not face the death penalty, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday. “The United States of America hereby notifies the Court and Defendant Patrick Wood Crusius that the Government will not seek the death penalty in the instant case,” prosecutors said in a one-sentence filing with the federal court in El Paso, according to The Texas Tribune. Cruisius allegedly targeted Hispanic people during the Aug. 3 shooting, and authorities say he used white-supremacist rhetoric to justify violence against Hispanic people during the attack. The Tribune noted death penalty sentences have reduced since the appointment of Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021, with no new cases having applied for such a charge. Crusius, 24, is charged with 23 counts of hate crime resulting in death, 23 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder in a crime of violence, 22 counts of hate crime in an attempt to kill, and 22 counts of use of a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.