A jury took less than two hours to convict Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine Charleston church parishioners in 2015.
After an emotional seven-day federal trial, Roof was found guilty of all 33 charges of murder, attempted murder and federal hate crimes.
Roof, 22, will face either the death penalty or life imprisonment for his crimes, for which he confessed in a chilling interview with investigators.
The issue, then, before the court was not whether or not Roof carried out the massacre, but if this could be constituted as a hate crime.
He was found guilty on all 33 counts, including committing hate crimes that resulted in death, on Thursday afternoon in Charleston.
During closing arguments, a prosecutor described Roof’s shooting as an act of “tremendous cowardice” fueled by “cold, calculated hatred.”
The victims were displayed before the court both as they lived - smiling and happy - and as they died, ravaged with bullets and covered in blood.
Astonishingly, the defendant only only he admitted he carried out the crime, but did so out of duty and in hopes of starting a race war.
After his arrest, Roof told investigators he “had to” shoot up the church, accusing other white supremacist groups of being such in name only.
“I had to do it because somebody had to do it,” he said.
In his car, a notebook detailing his suck beliefs on whites, blacks, Latinos, Jews, and other racial and ethnic groups was also found.
Roof’s defense, lead by renowned death penalty attorney David Bruck, sought to sow doubt that the 22-year-old’s motivations were clear.
The jury wasn't convinced.
Southern Poverty Law Center president Richard Cohen called the defendant an extremist and the “modern face of domestic terrorism.”
Cohen noted that even following the verdict, “Charleston is still healing from [Roof’s] horrific, racially motivated crime, as is our nation."
"Our hearts go out to the victims’ families.”
The extent of Bruck’s role, who also defended Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was unknown in the days leading up to trial.
Roof initially asked the judge if he could dismiss his attorneys and represent himself amid jury selection, only to backtrack on the request.
He later asked that his attorney only represent him during the guilt phase, which concluded today; Roof will defend himself going forward.
At issue appeared to be Bruck’s interest in presenting evidence that he hoped might call Roof’s mental capacity into serious question.
This was repeatedly stonewalled in the past week.
Throughout the trial, Bruck made attempts to call witnesses or enter evidence that spoke to Roof’s mental state only to be blocked by the judge.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel again suggested to Roof that he should not represent himself. The killer will do so anyway.
He will have until January 3 to change his mind.
Roof is expected back in court on that date to represent himself against the federal government’s call for the death penalty to be imposed.
http://www.epaperindia.in/2016/12/dylann-roof-found-guilty-33-counts-murder-hate-crimes-charleston-massacre/
#33_Counts_Of_Murder, #Charleston_Massacre, #Dylann_Roof
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