Jury sentences Dylann Roof to death for Emanuel AME Church massacre

[Valin]

Post And Courier:

Glenn Smith, Jennifer Berry Hawes and Abigail Darlington

Jan 10 2017

 

Just a few hours after he told a crowded courtroom “I still feel like I had to do it,” Dylann Roof was sentenced to death by a federal jury Tuesday for carrying out a cold, calculated massacre inside Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in a bid to spark a race war.

 

The 12-member panel – three black jurors, nine white – deliberated for a little less than three hours before unanimously deciding that the 22-year-old white supremacist should die for his crimes rather than spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

 

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel has scheduled a hearing for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to formally impose that sentence and hear from loved ones who wish to address the killer.

 

Roof, who sat stone-faced and silent through most of his hate crimes trial, showed no emotion as the jury’s verdict was read. During his closing argument earlier in the day, he passed on the chance to argue for his life, saying “I’m not sure what good that will do anyway.”

 

(Snip)