Dylann Roof is sentenced to DEATH for Charleston church shooting – he killed nine black churchgoers in racist attack
CHARLESTON church killer Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death for his racist attack that saw nine black worshippers shot dead.
The 22-year-old opened fire on churchgoers at a South Carolina chapel in 2015 after they had invited him to a Bible study group.
Showing no remorse before his verdict, a defiant Roof said: "I still feel like I had to do it."
The self confessed white supremacist did not offer any evidence to spare his life.
Speaking for about five minutes before the jury went to deliberate on his punishment he told them: "I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I'm not sure what good it would do anyway."
Every juror looked directly at him as he delivered his speech, and a few nodded as he reminded them that they said during jury selection they could fairly weigh the factors of his case.
Only one of them, he noted, had to disagree to spare his life.
When the verdict was read, he stood stoic and showed no emotion. Several family members of victims wiped away quiet tears.
Roof was found guilty last month of 33 count including nine of murder. Three more worshippers were wounded in the shooting.
It was the same jury that found him guilty on all counts, and deliberated Tuesday for under three hours before deciding his sentence.
Roof showed no remorse after carrying out the brutal church massacre.
He callously opened fire on the Bible study group after they had welcomed him in to the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church session.
He went on to the jury of eight men and four women: “I would say that in this case, the prosecution and anyone else who hates me, are the ones that have been misled."
The jurors had to decide whether to sentence Roof to life in prison without the possibility of parole or give him the death penalty.
Roof then added: “Wouldn’t it be fair to say that the prosecution hates me?"
He went on to answer his own question saying: "'Of course they hate you; everyone hates you. They have good reason to hate you.’ I don’t deny it.”
Earlier on Tuesday, when Roof stood before the jury and gave his halting cryptic closing argument, he suggested the prosecution “hates me.”
He went on to say the murder of nine parishoners at the Bible study meeting was not motivated by hatred of black people.
The self-proclaimed white supremacist told the court: “Anyone that thinks I’m filled with hatred has no idea what real hatred is.
“They don’t know anything about me. They don’t know what real hatred looks like. They think they do, but they don’t.”
Roof told FBI agents when they arrested him after the June 17, 2015, he carried out the shootings because he wanted to bring back segregation or start a race war.
However it actually unified people, with South Carolina removing the Confederate flag from its Statehouse for the first time in more than 50 years.
Other states followed suit, taking down Confederate banners and monuments, after pictures were released of Roof posing with the banner.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson the cold blooded killer picked out Emanuel AME Church, the South's oldest black church, to carry out the calculated slaughter,
Speaking during his closing argument he said: "They welcomed a 13th person that night ... with a kind word, a Bible, a handout and a chair. "He had come with a hateful heart and a Glock .45."
The gunman sat with the Bible study group for about 45 minutes.
During the final prayer when everyone's eyes were closed he started firing.
He stood over some of the fallen victims, shooting them again as they lay on the floor.
The prosecutor reminded jurors about each one of those murdered and the bloody scene that Roof left in the church's lower level.
He never made any attempt to deny slaughtering the victims at the church in South Carolina.
Members of the congregation, which included family of the victims, were in court to see what verdict was delivered on Tuesday.
DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Myrah Thompson, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Daniel Simmons, Clementa Pinckney and Cynthia Hurd were all killed.
Roof spared Polly Sheppard, 72, to tell the world about his crimes. She and Felicia Sanders, another survivor, testified at the trial, along with nearly two dozen friends and relatives of those slaughtered.
They shared cherished memories and talked about a future without a mother, father, sister or brother. They shed tears, and their voices shook, but none of them said whether Roof should face the death penalty.
Jennifer Pinckney testified about huddling under a desk with her 6-year-old daughter, her hand clasped over the girl's mouth to keep her quiet, as Roof started firing.
Not knowing for certain if the danger had passed, Pinckney dialed 911 and breathlessly told an operator she had heard shots inside the church.
"I think there's been a shooting. I'm in the closet, under a desk," Pinckney told the operator. "Please hurry."
On the call, Pinckney tries to comfort her daughter Malana, who had been watching cartoons in her father's office as he participated in Bible study.
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"Daddy's dead?" Malana says.
"No, baby, no," the mother says. But at that moment, Pinckney said she knew her husband, church pastor Clementa Pinckney, had been killed.
The slaying shocked the US and President Obama even sang Amazing Grace at a memorial service for the victims.
Roof had told the FBI he chose the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church because there probably wouldn't be any white people there.
Chilling excerpts from Roof's diary and his taped confession were full of offensive racial claims about black and Jewish people.
He was seen laughing and making gun motions as he described the massacre to the FBI.
Roof told investigators he wanted the world to know he hated black people and thought they were criminals.
Detailing his shocking thoughts about segregation and how whites were superior in his journal, the diary included stories about African-Americans enjoying slavery, as well as claims that segregation was needed to prevent white people from being dragged down.
In one of the less offensive passages, Roof wrote: “How could our faces, skin colour and body structure be so different, but our brains exactly the same?”
In another, he scrawled: “I would love for there to be a race war. I won’t lie, I think every white nationalist dreams of a race war even if they deny it.
“But I’m not sure we even need to have one.
“Ideally we could simply take control of the government, and enact laws in order to get things under control.
“I would personally be content with reinstating segregation and punishing certain individuals as need be.
“Although we would also need to put a forced sterilisation program and deportation program in place at the same time.”
Roof meticulously prepared for the shootings. He carried eight magazines that could each hold 13 rounds – but loaded only 11 each so that he could shoot 88 times.
The number is revered among white supremacists – standing for “Heil Hitler”, because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
At one point, an agent asked if Roof had thought about killing more blacks.
But he replied in a matter-of-fact fashion: “Oh, no. I was worn out.”
Roof said he left bullets in one of the magazines so he could kill himself after the massacre – but changed his mind when he didn't immediately see any cops.
Although the killer confessed, he entered a not guilty plea because he was facing a death penalty trial.
David Bruck, Roof's attorney, said he would have entered a guilty plea had life imprisonment been offered.
Roof's sentence will be finalised in a hearing on Wednesday.
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