S.C. shooting plea entered: not guilty

But defendant could plead guilty to hate crimes.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The man accused of gunning down nine African-Americans last month inside a historic black church known as “Mother Emanuel” has told his lawyers that he plans to plead guilty to federal hate crime charges, attorney David Bruck told a federal judge Friday.

However, Bruck said that because federal officials have not decided whether to seek a death sentence for some of those charges, he had told Dylan Storm Roof not to enter that plea. As a result, Magistrate Judge Bristow Marchant said a “not guilty” plea — effectively a temporary plea — would be entered for the alleged shooter.

Roof, 21, appeared in a courtroom blocks from the site of the massacre as he was formally read the 33 federal charges stemming from the shooting. Already being charged with nine counts of murder, he was indicted last week on the U.S. hate crime charges.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that no decision had been made yet about whether the federal government would seek the death sentence on those charges. Lynch said that victims’ families and survivors of the church attack would be consulted before a decision is made.

Scarlett Wilson, the prosecutor for Charleston County, has also not announced any decision about whether she would seek the death penalty for the murder charges Roof is facing in the state. Wilson also said that she would discuss it with victims’ families before deciding.

In death penalty cases, a plea of guilty can be used as a way to avoid a death sentence. Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, had long pleaded not guilty to charges; he ultimately struck a deal and pleaded guilty the day that opening arguments in his trial were set to begin, agreeing to life in prison without possibility of parole and evading the death penalty.

Dozens of the victim’s family members and friends packed the courtroom to face Roof for the first time. Some stared at him stone-faced, while others turned and wiped away tears. Several family members expressed forgiveness.

GETTY IMAGES People walk past Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Friday. Earlier, Dylan Roof was arraigned on 33 charges, including hate crimes, in the June 17 massacre.