Hundreds of jurors report to court in church massacre trial
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann Roof, the man charged with massacring nine black parishioners at a Charleston church, mostly avoided eye contact Monday with the potential jurors who could give him a death sentence if they convict him of federal charges.
About 320 potential jurors reported to the courthouse in the city’s historic district on the first day of jury screening for Roof’s trial on charges of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and other offenses in the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church.
He faces 33 federal counts altogether.
About 3,000 potential jurors were summoned — a pool that’s about 73 percent white and 23 percent black. The South Carolina population as a whole is 69 percent white and 28 percent black.