Judge to consider releasing church shooting 911 tapes

Roof’s attorney said he initially planned on pleading guilty at his client’s arraignment on July 21, but the rest of the legal team advised him to wait and see whether prosecutors would seek the death penalty, Vice News reported on Wednesday.

That announcement came in a hearing Wednesday morning over a gag order in the shooting case.

Nicholson said he would amend an earlier order that blocked the release of the documents but will first review the photographs with attorneys for the media and the victims’ families, before deciding what might be released.

According to the report, though, the judge will let 911 call transcripts available for release.

The federal charges are based on evidence that Roof targeted the black victims because of their race and “in order to interfere with their exercise of religion”, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.

Jay Bender, an attorney representing The Associated Press and other media organizations during the hearing, said he expects it will be a couple weeks before Nicholson issues a decision.

Nicholson expressed concerns early on that the publicity surrounding the case could jeopardize Roof’s right to a fair trial as well as the victims’ rights to protection.

A state judge says he’s concerned about the release to the media of graphic crime-scene photographs and the 911 audio tapes stemming from the shooting of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AMEW church in Charleston.

In addition to state murder charges, Roof faces 33 federal hate crime and weapons charges that also could result in a death sentence.

A friend of the suspect in the Charleston church shooting is being investigated for lying to police and not reporting everything he may have known about the crime, a federal law enforcement official has told The Associated Press.

Marchant also heard briefly from family members of victims of the June 17 attack at the church in downtown Charleston.

William Nettles, the United States attorney for South Carolina, wrote in a friend of the court brief that Nicholson should keep the order in place.

Rene Josey, a former USA attorney now in private practice in South Carolina, said federal authorities often use target letters to warn people they might be called before a grand jury and should get a lawyer. Roof’s trial on the state charges has been tentatively set for July 11, 2016.