Jury sentences Dylann Roof to death for Emanuel AME Church massacre
By Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Abigail Darlington
Jan 10, 2017 Updated 9 min ago
Just a few hours after he told a crowded courtroom “I still feel like I had to do it,” a federal jury sentenced Dylann Roof to death for carrying out a cold, calculated massacre inside Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in a bid to spark a race war.
The 12-member panel – three white jurors, nine black – deliberated for a little less than three hours before unanimously deciding that the 22-year-old white supremacist should die for his crimes rather than spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
It will be up to the presiding judge to formally impose that sentence, but he is bound by law to follow the jury’s decision. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel has scheduled the formal sentencing hearing for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Roof, who sat stone-faced and silent through most of his hate crimes trial, betrayed no emotion as the jury’s verdict was read. During his closing argument earlier in the day, he passed on the chance to argue for his life, saying “I’m not sure what good that will do anyway.”
After the jury announced its verdict, Roof stood and asked the judge if he would appoint him new lawyers to help him file a request for a new trial. Gergel told Roof a significant amount has been spent on the current legal team that Roof sidelined for the trial's penalty phase, a team led by noted capital defense lawyer David Bruck. The judge said he would be "strongly disinclined" to bring in new lawyers at this point, but he will listen to any motions Roof wants to make during Wednesday's proceedings.
Earlier in the day, Roof told the jury that prosecutors don't understand him or the meaning of hate in their quest to put him to death for the June 2015 church massacre.
“Anyone, including the prosecution, who thinks I am filled with hate has no idea what real hate is,” Roof said, speaking to jurors from a podium about eight feet away from the jury box. “They don’t know anything about hate."
After Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson delivered a two-hour closing statement, Roof walked to the podium with a single sheet of yellow notebook paper. He appeared to read from it, pausing at times to glance down. His remarks lasted less than five minutes.
The 12 jurors and six alternates listened impassively as Roof, acting as his own attorney, addressed them.
"(Prosecutors) don’t know what real real hatred looks like," he said in a flat, hollow voice. "They think they do, but they don't really."
In a brief, disjointed address, he insisted that he wasn't lying when he told FBI agents that he doesn't hate black people. He noted that, in his confession, he made the distinction that he doesn't like what black people do. Nor was he lying when he said he felt he had to act as he did, he said.
“I think it’s safe to say that someone in their right mind wouldn’t go into a church and kill people,” he said. “You might remember in my confession to the FBI, I told them I had to do it. Obviously, that isn’t true because I didn’t have to do it. I didn’t have to do anything. But what I meant when I said that was I felt like I had to do that. And I still feel like I had to do it.”
Loved ones of the nine people Roof killed crammed every seat in one side of the courtroom and listened with quiet but intense focus as he spoke. None of Roof's family members attended.
Roof went on to say that he is misunderstood but he didn't attempt to explain himself further, offering only that "the prosecution and anyone else who hates me are the ones who have been misled." He said people hate for a reason. Sometimes that means they have been misled, other times not.
“Wouldn’t it be fair to say that the prosecution hates me since they are the ones trying to give me the death penalty?” he asked. “You could say, ‘Of course they hate you. Everyone hates you. They have good reason to hate you.’ I’m not denying that. My point is that anyone who hates anything, in their mind, has a good reason.”
Roof said he had been told that he had the right to ask the jury for a life sentence "but I'm not sure what good that will do anyway." He also reminded them that during jury selection each had pledged to stand up and object to a death sentence if they felt that was necessary. He stopped short of asking them to do that, though.
Roof's brief statement contrasted with the government's lengthy and thorough closing in which Richardson argued that Roof's cold, calculated plan to spark a race war by executing nine good people "is precisely why this case justifies the death penalty."
He added that the young Eastover man's hate-fueled massacre inside Charleston's Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015 met all the requirements for the ultimate punishment. Among other things, the attack involved substantial planning, targeted vulnerable victims and killed multiple people, he said.
"The horrific aspects of this case justify the death penalty," he said. "It outweighs anything else you might consider on the other side."
What's more, Roof has shown a complete lack of remorse for his actions and has continued to write "racist filth" since his arrest, Richardson said. "You have seen nothing to indicate this defendant shows the possibility of meaningful change or redemption," he said.
Reciting the victims' names one by one, Richardson finished his two-hour closing by telling the jury it is their responsibility to sentence Roof to death for each of these killings.
"Each of you was selected to serve on this jury," he said. "We now ask you to speak the truth, to hold this defendant fully accountable for his crimes."
Roof, dressed in a blue sweater and slacks, stared at the table in front of him during Richardson's remarks, as has been his custom throughout the trial.
The same panel now deliberating – three black jurors, nine white – found Roof guilty last month of 33 offenses related to the June 2015 mass shooting at the South’s oldest AME church. They will choose between two options for Roof: the death penalty, or a life prison term without the possibility of parole.
Under the federal death penalty statute, the judge is instructed to impose whichever penalty jurors choose. If they fail to reach a unanimous decision, the judge must hand down a life sentence.
'A hate-filled heart'
The morning began with Richardson recounting for the jurors how Roof methodically executed black parishioners who had welcomed him into the weekly Bible study.
He recalled how the devout group offered Roof words of welcome, a Bible and a seat next to their pastor. Roof repaid them 45 minutes later by pulling out a gun during closing prayer, shooting the Rev. Clementa Pinckney first from the very chair the pastor had pulled out for him.
"They learned with the sounds of gunfire that the defendant had not come to learn or receive The Word," he said. "He came with a hate-filled heart and a Glock .45."
Richardson described how Roof stalked through the room, pumping bullet after bullet into his victims, pausing only to reload seven times. "You've heard how the people in that room heard shot after shot ring out," he said. "You have heard how the defendant pulled the trigger on that Glock more than 75 times."
Richardson reminded them that survivor Felicia Sanders protected her 11-year-old granddaughter with her body as she watched her aunt, son and friends die around her. He described how 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders was cut down after he told Roof they meant him no harm. He recounted how Jennifer Pinckney cowered with her 6-year-old in an adjoining room as her husband, the church's pastor, was gunned down. And he told them of the terror Polly Sheppard felt as Roof trained his gun on her and told her to shut up when she started praying. He then allowed her to live so she could tell the story of what had happened, the prosecutor said.
Richardson told the jury that Roof had planned for months to carry out the attack. After soaking up hate online, he chose Emanuel as a target and scouted the church for six months, traveling again and again to Charleston to visit historical sites and the church where he intended to kill, he said.
"The one constant, the one place he always came to, the one he made sure he never missed on those trips: the church, Mother Emanuel," he said.
Richardson described how Roof purchased the Glock to carry out his attack and spent months stockpiling ammunition. In a tribute to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, he carried 88 bullets into the church, a nod to the eighth letter of the alphabet, used in the phrase "Hail Hitler," he said.
Roof practiced with the gun, posed with the pistol and recorded himself taking target practice. Some of those images would later accompany a racist manifesto he posted online just hours before the attack. Then, he drove to Charleston one last time and parked outside the church, a place he had chosen for its historical significance and its standing as a safe haven.
"He walked in with a gun, a mission and magazines in his pouch," Richardson said.
However misguided, this was no rash act, Richardson told the jury. "This was not some momentary gasp, this was not some moment where he just got mad. This was calculated," he said. "He spent years acquiring this deep hatred, this deep hatred that all of us would like to believe does not exist in someone. But it does, and you have seen it."
In his confession, Roof told FBI agents that "I had to do it," the proclamation of "an extraordinary racist" who chose his course and stood by it in an attempt to create "a big wave" that would spark a race war, Richardson said.
"His society is a white society... that's the world he wanted to live in," Richardson said. "He plan was to create a white future, and he murdered nine people as a result."
What's more, he added, Roof hasn't shown an ounce of remorse for his actions. He has shown sorrow for his parents and pity for himself over his predicament, but he bragged in a jailhouse journal after his arrest that he had no regrets and hadn't shed a single tear for those he killed. He continued to decorate his shoes with white supremacist symbols while in jail, wearing the shoes to the very courtroom where his victims' families sat awaiting justice, he said.
"Unrepentant," he said. "He feels no remorse because it was worth it to him."
Roof also fully understood the gravity of his actions, Richardson said. That can be seen in his decisions to take back roads out of Charleston and avoid using his ATM card after the shooting in an effort to evade capture. "He fully understood the horrific nature of the crimes he just committed. He understood the consequences that would be coming," he said.
A great loss
Richardson also reminded the jury of what Charleston lost in Roof's bloody rampage. He recounted for the jury who these victims were to their families, the community and their beloved Emanuel AME Church. He offered touching tributes, accompanied by family photos of each of the nine that flashed on courtroom screens.
The victims were Cynthia Hurd, 54, a library manager who stayed that night to support a friend; Susie Jackson, 87, a family matriarch who sang in the choir; Ethel Lance, 70, the church's sexton who found strength in gospel songs; DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, a minister licensed to preach on the night of the shooting; Clementa Pinckney, 41, the church's pastor and a state senator; Tywanza Sanders, 26, a barber, poet and aspiring entrepreneur; Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, a sharp-dressing retired pastor who led the Bible study most nights; Sharonda Coleman Singleton, 45, a minister and beloved track coach; and Myra Thompson, 59, a church trustee and licensed minister who led the study lesson for the first time last night.
"He chose these great people," Richardson said. "He went there hoping to find the best among us."
Although he offered a brief closing argument, Roof mounted no defense during the penalty phase of his trial. He cross-examined no government witnesses and called none of his own. He rested his case Monday without introducing a single piece of evidence in his behalf.
His opening statement was equally brief, mainly focused on his desire to convince jurors that he isn't mentally ill despite his attorneys' efforts to introduce evidence to the contrary.
On Monday, Roof filed a motion challenging the aggravating factors jurors will be asked to consider, such as allegations that he was trying to start a race war. "There is no evidence that I attempted to incite violent action by others in preparation, or subsequent to the acts of violence," the motion states.
An FBI agent testified that messages on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist website, showed Roof had tried to reach out to other race separatists in the Columbia area. And in his journal, he stated, "I would love there to be a race war. I wont lie, I think every white nationalist dreams of a race war even if they deny it."
Roof also challenged the notion that some of his victims should be considered "vulnerable" simply because they were elderly. "Although they were elderly, they were not any more vulnerable than any of the other victims, due to the nature of the attack," he argued.
Three of his victims were 70 or older. Roof shot the oldest victim, 87-year-old Susie Jackson, at least 11 times.
http://www.postandcourier.com/church_sho...037e89bddc.html
![[Linked Image from s2.excoboard.com]](http://s2.excoboard.com/forums/25521/user/302752/484538.gif)