Church shooter plans on no witnesses or evidence

Dylann Roof seems more concerned with family secrets.

Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof says he won’t call any witnesses or present evidence while representing himself during the punishment phase of his death penalty trial, but he is working hard to keep secret potentially embarrassing evidence about himself and his family.

What that evidence is remains a mystery. Roof, the judge and prosecutors carefully tiptoed around describing it during a hearing Wednesday. The judge has indicated that it may be allowed during the penalty phase of the trial, which starts next week.

The same jurors who convicted Roof earlier this month of killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack will hear from Roof, as well as from the families of victims. At the end of the penalty phase, the panel will decide whether Roof, who is white, should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Roof was warned by U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel that being his own lawyer was a bad idea.

“That’s your decision,” Gergel said. “I think that highlights my advice to you that you aren’t served by being your own counsel.”

Gergel told Roof to talk to his grandfather, who is a lawyer, and other family members, and that he has until the start of the penalty phase Tuesday to change his mind and rehire his high-powered, publicly funded defense team.

Roof spoke for less than 10 minutes of the 35-minute hearing. He told Gergel he does plan to make an opening statement and closing argument. He also told the judge he objects to prosecutors’ plans to present a photograph of evidence in the court’s possession, but Roof, Gergel and assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson did not say what the photo shows.

Gergel said there had been a hearing in which he decided it could be admitted in the penalty phase.

Roof also wanted a jailhouse statement left out of the penalty phase and evidence that involved his mother. No specifics were given. Gergel told Roof to write a motion for him to consider.

Roof ’s defense attorneys wanted to call mental health experts to testify for him, but Roof has indicated he will not. In his hate-filled, racist journal, read to the jury during his trial, Roof said his doesn’t believe in psychology, condemning it as “a Jewish invention.”

Prosecutors also laid out their case Wednesday. Most of the penalty phase will involve testimony from up to 38 people related to the nine Roof killed, and the three he spared, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015.

Gergel, who complained during the guilt phase that prosecutors were repeating themselves at times with witnesses, said he will allow Richardson to call as many witnesses related to the victims as he wants.

“The statute provides broad leeway for the victims to be heard, and I plan on honoring that,” he said.

Richardson said he also will call the chief FBI agent on the case to tie up loose ends and refresh jurors’ memories.

Dylann Roof, pictured while in custody in Shelby, N.C., in June, was convicted earlier this month of killing nine church members in a racially motivated attack. He says he won’t call witnesses or present evidence while representing himself in the...