Dylann Roof, a white supremacist that turned his gun on innocent African-American Christians that had invited him into a Bible study session, was unrepentant of his racist crimes during his trial.
In the end, however, he asked the jury to consider sparing his life.
Their answer was no. Tuesday, Roof was sentenced to death — a punishment that will ultimately send him to face trial before the Almighty God.
A jury deliberated for about three hours before returning with the decision, capping a trial in which the 22-year-old avowed white supremacist did not show any remorse. He served as his own attorney during sentencing and never asked for forgiveness or mercy or explained the massacre.
The slain included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church pastor and a state senator, as well as other pillars of the community: a high school track coach, the church sexton, a librarian and an aspiring poet. They all shared deep devotion to the church, known as Mother Emanuel, and passed that faith along to their families, many of whom offered Roof forgiveness when he appeared in court just days after the attack.
As Roof spoke Tuesday for about five minutes, every juror looked directly at him. A few nodded as he reminded them that they said during jury selection they could fairly weigh the factors of his case. Only one of them, he noted, had to disagree to spare him from a lethal injection.
“I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good it would do anyway,” he said.
When the verdict was read, he stood stoic. Several family members of victims wiped away quiet tears.
Roof told FBI agents when they arrested him after the June 17, 2015, slayings that he wanted the shootings to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war. Instead, the slayings had a unifying effect.
Malcolm Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was slain, said the jury made the right decision.
“There is no room in America’s smallest jail cell for hatred, racism and discrimination,” he said from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. “The journey for me and my family today has come to an end.”
One of Hurd’s other brothers, Melvin Graham, said the jury’s decision “was a very hollow victory” because his sister is still gone.
“He decided the day, the hour and minute my sister was going to die. Now someone is going to do it for him,” he said.
Roof specifically selected Emanuel AME Church, the South’s oldest black church, to carry out the cold, calculated slaughter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson said.
The 12 people he targeted opened the door for a stranger with a smile, he said. Three people survived the attack.
“They welcomed a 13th person that night … with a kind word, a Bible, a handout and a chair,” Richardson said during his closing argument. “He had come with a hateful heart and a Glock .45.”
The gunman sat with the Bible study group for about 45 minutes. During the final prayer — when everyone’s eyes were closed — he started firing. He stood over some of the fallen victims, shooting them again as they lay on the floor, Richardson said.
The prosecutor reminded jurors about each one of the victims and the bloody scene that Roof left in the church’s lower level.
Nearly two dozen friends and relatives of the victims testified during the sentencing phase of the trial. They shared cherished memories and talked about a future without a mother, father, sister or brother. They shed tears, and their voices shook, but none of them said whether Roof should face the death penalty.
The prosecutor reminded jurors that Clementa Pinckney would be remembered for singing goofy songs and watching cartoons with his young daughters. In a sign of perhaps how important that testimony was, jurors re-watched a speech by Pinckney in which he talked about the history of Emanuel and its mission.
The jury convicted Roof last month of all 33 federal charges he faced, including hate crimes. He never explained his actions to jurors, saying only that “anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for it.”
Roof insisted that he was not mentally ill and did not call any witnesses or present any evidence.
In one of his journals, he wrote that he did not believe in psychology, calling it “a Jewish invention” that “does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they don’t.”
His attorneys said he did not want to present any evidence that might embarrass him or his family.
After he was sentenced, Roof asked a judge to appoint him new attorneys, but the judge said he was not inclined to do so because they had performed “admirably.”
A judge will formally sentence him during a hearing Wednesday. Roof also faces a death penalty trial in state court.
The last person sent to federal death row was Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
An evil person.
ADIOS MURDERER.
ADIOS MURDERER
Yes!! So true!! I would not waste a lethal shot on him, feed him to the alligators, and be done with this walking devil!!
regardless of the race this moron killed, black, white, Hispanic what ever…… DO NOT WASTE any more money on him…. he was caught dead to right in the video…… put the bubble in his arm within the next 24 hours !
Why I’m against the Death Penalty …
If they had just found him Guilty and gave him Life without Parole, It would have cost the Taxpayer less than
$50,000 a year to keep him in jail. We could have kept him for 40 years for $2,000,000.
By giving him Death, the mandatory Death Motions start, and by the time the attorney friends of the court get done, fighting the Death Sentence they will have billed the government around $24,000,000.
You think he’s worth $24,000,000 just to kill?
If you don’t think Life without Parole, is punishment go in your bathroom, close the door and don’t come out for a week, think how that would be for the rest of your life.
My solution to the lengthy appeals process is to allow one round of appeals paid for by the taxpayer. Any future appeals would have to be paid for by bleeding heart lawyers. It would be interesting to see how many of them would put their money where their mouth is.
There is no need for this trash to one day stand before our Lord God Almighty. He will go straight to purgatory as there can be no mercy for such an evil person. I feel sorry for his family but they too need to take comfort from the fact that this maniac is to become fertilizer.
Great slip this fruitcake several needles.
Those needles are far too expensive. How about a shot from
a .22 pistol in the back of the head. The cartridge cost 12 cents.
I will be glad to donate one but I would like the empty casing back.
The justice system got it right, for a change!
Only because he didn’t have a foundation.
If you have millions, you can buy your way out of anything, but eventually the foundation will dry up, and justice will come, and it is coming.
You hit the nail on the head !!!! Sounds like a Clinton scenario !!!!
And is white.
Where is the death penalty for Nidal Hassan?
SCREW death row! As the queen said in “Alice and Wonderland “Off with his head” quick and very permanent. Why waste time. He admits he did it and has zero remorse. Death row is crap. END it! Why should we support this savage?
Unfortunately people given the “death sentence” usually spend at least a decade on death row at taxpayers expense while a bunch of liberal lawyers and groups make fools of themselves pleading for something the person does not deserve. Let’s hope this degenerate gets what society deserves ASAP.
How long will he live in a cushy cell with three squares a day before they pull the plug? I bet he will end up living a long time on our dime. They allow these freaks too long. Do it today!! He did it – we know he did it- he ADMITTED he did it. So The authorities need to JUST DO IT!!! Pull the plug and send him to H3LL!!
The only just outcome for this coward – anything other than the death sentence would have been a travsity.
Hopefully his death sentence will be carried out in a speedy fashion. In his case there was no doubt that he committed the crime. He now needs to pay for his actions.
However it should be prolonged to fit the same timeline of his murderous spree and he should be made to suffer during the entire process.
The only way that death will come quickly to Root is if he kills himself, or is killed by one of the other prisoners.
Death row is just another system for divesting Americans of their assets.
Not so fast! It won’t be “justice” until the sentence (Death) is carried out. The idea that the “process” is “justice” is pure “Bovine Scatology”.
He didn’t give the victims he shot a chance at a life sentence, he shot them while their eyes were closed in prayer, how many people did he take from their loved ones, how many children did he leave without a father or a mother? That he would have the nerve to ask for anything after his senseless slaughter of people who openly accepted him, people who didn’t care what color he was. Just because a white or black person does something bad, doesn’t make all white people bad, or all black people bad, it just means that the person chose to do something bad, they chose to sin, we are all judged individually by Jesus, himself, and it will have nothing to do with the color of our skin. I can’t honestly say I feel sorry for Dylann, but I pray that he would repent before he meets his Maker, that he would come to terms with his vengeful heart, that he would get tired of the hate.
I read your comment: I have a question and have read all the comments where anger lies about what needs to be done with him each and everyone has to face and answer to God for what we do we face the wrath or face His judgement,and yes! I do feel sorry for Dylan,and I also feel sorry for all the families in the Orlando shooting that also has to do without family members they lost,the Ft.Lauderdale ,shooting at the International airport,the Ca.shooting,the cops that has been shot and the cop shooter in Texas that was shot fifteen times in the head while getting gas.was he sentenced to die in death row?all these other cops killings were they sentenced to die like Dylan? no! This is where I have a problem with all these comments and if Justice is to be done it needs to be done to all that kills not pick and choose.white in a black church but a black shooting a white cop fifteen times in the head there is my problem,many shoot out of anger or hate and does not make it right no matter who it is,and you are right he does need to repent and ask God’s forgiveness and so does many more I do hope that someone will be lead to witness to him and make it right with God no matter what people say.
So I wonder where Dylann will live and what his new name will be?
Tom McVey on Epstein Island? He may party with Timothy McVeigh..
Obama could pardon him as another slap in the face to all the decent people of America.
GUYS LIKE THIS WILL SOON BE AT BLM RALLYS AS LONG AS BLM IS AROUND SO WILL THIS PEOPLE LOOKING FOR TROUBLE WILL FIND IT TRUMP WON PARTYS OVER
No needles no 22 bullets in the back of his head he need to have body parts remove one at a time and let him beg for his death
How many years, how many millions before we are rid of him?
How many years, how many millions before we are rid of him?
You tell me the above is already mentioned, though I do not see it posted.
I see it now, thank you.
The real sentence is coming when he meets his maker.
Now that Dylan Roof received the death penalty, South Carolina should & out to have already carried out the death penalty, not wait around wasting taxpayer money with that animal on death row. South Carolina should & ought to execute him within 72 hours after receiving the death sentence, no more than that.
GOOD. THAT’S WHAT ANYONE WHO KILLS DESERVES.
Why are we even wasting ink writing about this miscreant?
A firing squad is quick and inexpensive. Or, hanging is relatively quick, too.
In Roof’s case given the death penalty he should not get any appeals considering he admitted to it and there is video footage so there is no doubt. Now they are saying he has no remorse and no one in their right mind would act the way he is acting…. Guess what … No one in their right mind would commit 1 murder let alone multiple murders.
But because of the PC and the appeals process he will end up on death row for 30 plus years at tax payers expense which they figure to house one inmate for a year cost an average of $45,000.
I always come to tears when reading about this terrible incident in South Carolina that was caused by that racist punk Roof. I wish he would be sentenced to die in the same way as his victims: Firing squad. Or a single sniper pumping multiple bullets into his worthless body. His death should be made as painful as possible.
That dumb asshole should die by automatic weapons after the vedecit was read take him to unclosed location tie him at a post
shoot the bastard the same way as his victims or make it a very slow death by playing Russian Roulette he pull the trigger and put the gun against his head and see what happen so the victims has some clousure and peace in their lives