Church shooter to take state deal
Dylann Roof still faces execution for federal conviction.
Convicted South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof is set to plead guilty to state murder charges, avoiding a second death sentence and effectively bringing to a close the prosecutions against him for the 2015 slaughter.
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said Friday that Roof is scheduled to enter a guilty plea during a hearing on April 10 in Charleston. The plea on all of his state charges, including nine counts of murder, comes in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, the prosecutor said.
Roof, 22, has been awaiting trial on state murder charges for the deaths of nine black parishioners at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church in June 2015. Authorities said Roof spent months plan- ning his attack on the historic black church, driving by the building and calling to check on service times. Roof sat through an hour of a Wednesday night Bible study before opening fire during a prayer, when par- ticipants’ eyes were closed, authorities said.
The deal won’t save Roof from possible execution. Earlier this year, a federal jury sentenced him to death on convictions that included hate crimes and obstruc- tion of the practice of religion. Roof ’s federal defense team had signaled his will- ingness to plead guilty ahead of that trial if the death pen- alty were off the table, but federal prosecutors declined the offer.
Roof ultimately fired his defense team and represented himself in the sentencing phase of the trial. The self-avowed white supremacist called no witnesses, never asked for forgiveness or mercy and told jurors in his closing argument, “I still feel like I had to do it.”
Roof’s plea in the state case will mark the end of the trial proceedings against him. If the deal goes through, authorities will transfer Roof from jail in Charleston to the federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind. Years of appeals are a certainty, and Roof has already filed for a new federal trial, arguing that prosecutors didn’t have juris- diction to bring their case against him.
Roof ’s state defense team did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment on the plea deal. Andy Savage, who represents some victims’ families and two survivors of the shoot- ing, said in an email that he had spoken to some of his clients, who were pleased with the news.
“‘Praise God’ was the response of Felicia Sanders,” Savage said of a woman who lost her son and aunt in the shootings. “Others were likewise relieved that there will be no trial and that Dylann Roof will be segregated from society for the remainder of his life.”
Savage also shared an email he had written to the state judge overseeing Roof ’s case, noting that sending Roof to a federal institution “is the preference of all victims that I represent.”
Wilson said Friday she was confident the federal case against Roof would be upheld.
“I think it is highly unlikely that anything will be disturbed on appeal in federal court,” she said, adding that Roof’s plea deal with the state for life in prison “just gives an insurance policy against that.”