The 12 jurors gave their decision on Dylann Roof, who faced federal murder and hate crimes charges, and declared that the mass murderer’s punishment for the massacre at a Charleston church is the death penalty.
For the sentencing of the death penalty, the jury’s decision had to be unanimous, which it was. If just one juror disagrees he would have received a life sentence without parole.
In response to his sentencing, Roof has requested new lawyers to help him file a motion for a retrial.
Roof killed nine people in the racially motivated massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015.
Roof, an avowed white supremacist, has showed no remorse during the trial and said, “In my confession to the FBI I told them that I had to do it, and obviously that’s not really true. … I didn’t have to do anything. But what I meant when I said that was, I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it.”
Roof had told investigators in a recorded interview that “somebody had to do it,” in part because “black people are killing white people every day.”
“I would like to make it crystal clear, I do not regret what I did,” Roof wrote. “I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.”
He even wore shoes with racist symbols on them.
He did however ask to be spared, “From what I’ve been told, I have a right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good that will do anyway.
Roof was at the AME church three previous times to scout his target and sat with members of the church for 40 minutes before he carried out his horrific massacre. He pulled the trigger “more than 75 times … reloading seven times” as he stood over his victims and shot them repeatedly.
[CNN]