Roof tells judge he wants attorneys’ aid

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The white man charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church asked a judge Sunday if he could have his defense team back, at least temporarily.

In a handwritten request, Dylann Roof asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel to bring his defense team back on board for the guilt phase of his federal death penalty trial, which begins this week in Charleston.

“I would like to ask if my lawyers can represent me for the guilt phase of the trial only,” Roof wrote. “Can you let me have them back for the guilt phase, and then let me represent myself for the sentencing phase of the trial? If you would allow that, then that is what I would like to do.”

Death penalty cases are split into two parts: the guilt phase, and then a separate portion that focuses on whether the defendant will be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Roof, 22, faces dozens of federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion, for the June 2015 slayings at the end of a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church.

The request comes a week after a federal judge allowed Roof to represent himself, a request that came as court convened last week to begin the process of qualifying a jury pool to hear Roof’s case. Gergel, who had found Roof competent to stand trial a week earlier, said Roof had the constitutional right to act as his own attorney, a decision the judge called “very unwise.”