Roof to get death penalty in church massacre
CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal jury Tuesday unanimously recommended the death penalty for Dylann Roof in the June 2015 hate crime killings of nine African-Americans at a historic Charleston church.
Roof, 22, an avowed white supremacist from the Columbia area, is the first defendant to be sentenced to death for federal hate crimes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman. He was convicted last month.
In their long list of findings in the decision for death, the nine white and three black jurors unanimously found that racial hatred was one of the motivating factors that prompted Roof to kill the parishioners during their Wednesday night Bible study. They also cited Roof ’s lack of remorse for what a federal prosecutor earlier Tuesday deemed “a racebased massacre.”
The jurors, 10 of whom were women, took a little less than three hours to decide on death.
After the verdict, Melvin Graham, the brother of one of Roof’s victims, librarian Cynthia Hurd, met with reporters.
“This is a very hollow victory,” Graham said. “My sister is gone. I wish that this verdict could bring her back. But it can’t.
“But what it can do is send a message to those who feel the way he feels that this community will not tolerate it.”
An hour before, as Roof listened to U.S. Judge Richard Gergel read the jury’s decision, he fidgeted with his hands while keeping his gaze straight ahead.
Roof, who was representing himself, then stood and asked for new attorneys to handle a motion for a new trial.
Gergel, appearing taken aback by Roof’s request for new attorneys, made just seconds after hearing the death sentence, told the defendant to “sleep on it” and provide specifics about the request at a later date.