Church shooting attorney calls state prosecutor ‘reckless’

According to the filing, the federal hate crimes statute, while laudable in its intent, “cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny. because it affords the federal government virtually unchecked discretion to prosecute crimes already being punished by the states”.

The court documents, which were filed Tuesday, assert that the case against Roof should be handled by the state of SC. During a weekly Bible study at the church, Roof, then 21, allegedly opened fire with a handgun and killed the attending parishioners.

The charges, therefore, can’t be interpreted to have any effect on interstate commerce – a provision that governs federal crimes – as the “statutory provision contains no reference to commerce or economic activity other than a boiler-plate jurisdictional element”.

Late Tuesday, Roof’s defense team filed a 34-page motion urging Gergel to dismiss last year’s federal indictment of Roof that has led to federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection for Roof’s federal trial is scheduled to start on November 7. She cited the Commerce Clause and the Fifth and Thirteenth Amendments, and argued the case should be left to the state.

The state case is scheduled for trial on January 17, 2017.

Drake called Wilson a “terrific, capable, smart and excellent trial lawyer” who also at one point worked as a federal prosecutor.

Roof’s attorneys claim that he will plead guilty if the government drops its pursuit of the death penalty. While it may seem that state and federal officials disagree at times, she wrote, “at the end of the day, we are all after the same thing — justice”.

Also, prosecutors said, they were also anxious that defense lawyers might make a last-minute request to changes the trial’s location, now set for Charleston, to another place in the state. Prosecutors have until July 25 to respond.

Court papers including the deadline and proof the federal government had been served with the lawsuits were filed Wednesday in court.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An attorney for the man facing dual death-penalty trials in the shootings of nine churchgoers in SC says a state prosecutor’s desire to go to trial before federal authorities is “reckless and shortsighted”.

Roof, 22, is charged with 33 federal violations, including hate crimes and obstructing the practice of religion, for the June 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME in Charleston.

FBI Director James Comey has said Roof should not have been able to buy the gun.

Public defender Ashley Pennington says that if Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wants justice, she should accept Dylann Roof’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors in that case have not said if they will pursue the death penalty.

On June 18, 2015, Roof was arrested by authorities in North Carolina, for an arrest warrant issued by the State of SC.