Dylann Roof: Just Kidding, I Want Lawyers Now

(AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File).

Roof is being charged with the deaths of nine African-American parishioners at Mother Emanuel Church in June 2015. Judge Richard Gergel rejected the request, but did tell jurors they needed to make up their own mind about what penalty Roof deserved. One further magazine was found in Roof’s auto after he was apprehended by law enforcement.

Roof faces charges of first degree murder, obstruction of the practice of religion, and hate crimes.

The prosecutor said the accused had turned his gun on the group about half an hour after joining them at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Richardson told the 12 jurors they will hear Roof’s confession and hear how he hoped to start a race war by targeting the AME parishioners. His attorneys, who have been acting as legal advisors since Roof’s initial request, have argued that Roof, a high school dropout, wasn’t remotely qualified to represent himself in a murder trial.

Roof also designed his own logo that included his initials, a swastika and the number 88, which for white supremacists stands for “Heil Hitler”, the prosecutor said. When he arrived at the church and went inside, Richardson said the pastor, Clementa Pinckney, gave him a Bible, and let him sit in on the regularly scheduled church study.

The motion-activated camera came on again at 9:07 p.m. and captured Roof leaving the church.

Opening statements are expected to begin after a jury is selected Wednesday. One officer testified that he found one of the shooting victims lying on the floor in the church basement.

A federal judge has denied a defense request for a mistrial in Dylann Roof’s trial in the Charleston church shooting.

Her first-hand recitation of the bloodshed was so intense that several in the courtroom sobbed and the judge abruptly declared a break to let Sanders compose herself.

He urged the jury to ask of Roof: “Who is he?”

An FBI investigator said Roof did not appear to be under the influence of anything when he was arrested June 18, 2015.

Shealy says with his involvement in death penalty cases the defense is usually some form of mental illness or family circumstance. Sanders also called Roof evil during her testimony.

Dylann Roof, the accused killer of nine unarmed black churchgoers, has a “hateful heart”.

Court began Thursday with a defense motion for a mistrial, after Roof’s lawyers objected to a statement made by Felicia Sanders, Tywanza Sanders, about Roof.

“There are a number of reasons why he might want to do it, first of all he may disagree with the strategy being used by his defense attorneys”, Shealy said.

Dylann Roof is asking that his federal trial in the killing of nine people at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, be delayed because of a mistrial in the case against a North Charleston police officer. Their attention is on keeping their client out of the death chamber.

Roof’s federal death penalty trial on 33 counts, including hate crimes, enters a second day Thursday.

“Many spectators and even court personnel – including members of the prosecution and defence – were crying with her”, the defence motion read.