White supremacist Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death for the racially motivated killings of nine black people at a South Carolina church.<\/p>\n
Dylann Roof was convicted last month of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes, after opening fire on a Bible study group in 2015.<\/p>\n
He remained unrepentant and had told the jury: “I felt like I had to do it and I still feel like I had to do it.”<\/p>\n
The jurors deliberated for nearly three hours before reaching their verdict.<\/p>\n
The massacre shocked the nation and reignited a debate about race relations and the flying of the Confederate flag.<\/p>\n
Roof told police he wanted to start a race war and he was photographed holding the battle flag, which to many is a symbol of hate.<\/p>\n
The tragedy led to the flag being removed from the South Carolina statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, Roof addressed the jury, saying: “I don’t know what good it would do anyway” if they spared his life.<\/p>\n
The judge will issue a formal sentence on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
After the sentence was announced, the 22-year-old killer stood and requested to be appointed new lawyers and to file for a retrial.<\/p>\n
US District Judge Richard Gergel replied that he was “strongly disinclined” and instructed Roof to think about it overnight.<\/p>\n
Nearly two dozen friends and relatives of those gunned down at the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston testified during the sentencing phase about how Roof’s crimes have affected their lives.<\/p>\n
But none of them had appealed to the jury to return a death sentence.<\/p>\n
Source bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"