The federal death penalty trial for the man charged with hate crimes in the deaths of nine people at Emanuel AME Church is expected to begin Wednesday.
Authorities say Dylann Roof, 22, sat with the black churchgoers in Bible study for an hour on June 17, 2015 before opening fire and hurling racial insults.
In all, the Eastover man faces 33 federal charges: nine counts of violating the Hate Crime Act resulting in death; three counts of violating the Hate Crime Act involving an attempt to kill, nine counts of obstruction of exercise of religion resulting in death, three counts of obstruction of exercise of religion involving an attempt to kill and use of a dangerous weapon and nine counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence.
This is the first day in a week that Roof will have his attorneys represent him. The suspect represented himself as 67 people — 50 white men and women, 15 black men and women, one pacific islander and one that identified as “other” — were qualified for the jury pool, but submitted a hand-written note Sunday asking for his counsel to take over for the next phase of the trial.
Once 12 jurors and six alternates are seated, opening statements and witness testimonies are expected to begin. The jurors chosen would decide whether Roof lives or dies for his alleged crimes.
Roof currently pleads not guilty, but his lawyers have offered a plead guilty several times if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
On Tuesday, Judge Richard Gergel denied a motion to delay the trial.
Roof’s attorneys said they wanted to hold off on the trial because of the publicity surrounding the mistrial in a former North Charleston police officer’s case.
The motion stated the Michael Slager mistrial “declared less than 48 hours before the scheduled start of the trial in this case, is highly likely to create undue pressure on the jury to compensate for the judicial system’s apparent failure to punish Mr. Slager by imposing a harsher punishment here.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said he wouldn’t allow other events to affect the progression of the trial.
By Suzelle Santos and Aaron Maybin
Source: WIST TV
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