Dylann Roof Found Guilty For Racist Church Massacre That Killed Nine
On Thursday, a jury found white supremacist Dylann Roof guilty of all 33 charges brought against him for committing a massacre last year that killed nine.
The 22-year old has never denied he was guilty of the carefully plotted shooting that took place in the historically black church of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015. He was silent and motionless as the forewoman said, “We find the defendant, Dylann Storm Roof, guilty,” 33 times, according to the New York Times.
Instead, he confessed to officers willingly and shared his racist manifesto, which included statements like “N*****s are stupid and violent. At the same time they have the capacity to be very slick,” and “Negroes have lower IQs, lower impulse control, and higher testosterone levels in general. These three things alone are a recipe for violent behavior.”
Roof’s charges include 12 counts of a hate crime against black victims, 12 counts of obstructing one’s right to exercise religion freely, and nine counts of murder with a firearm.
The jury deliberated for two hours during his trial before returning with an all-guilty verdict. Felicia Sanders, one of three survivors of the massacre, said, “I wasn’t expecting anything less. I knew it was going to be guilty, guilty, guilty all the way through,” according to the New York Times.
Her husband, Tyrone Sanders, said Roof was “pure evil.”
Roof had carefully planned his murder plot, making the 90-minute drive from his home in Eastover to the Charleston church six times before his crime, according to Post and Courier. The day of the shooting, Roof attended and silently sat in a bible study group for an hour before beginning his rampage inside the church.
According to Post and Courier, Roof and his lawyers made no attempts to deny his guilt, instead attempting to portray him as mentally ill as a result of online communities poisoning his mind. “There is hatred all right, and certainly racism, but it goes a lot further than that … There is something wrong with his perceptions,” said Roof’s attorney David Bruck.
Bruck, whom Post and Courier described as nationally renowned, called no witnesses for Roof’s trial, submitted no evidence, and gave a defense of only a few minutes, the L.A. Times reported.
However, assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Williams painted a different picture of Roof. Describing the massacre, Williams said, “In that moment, a man of immense hatred walked around that room shooting person after person after person, stopping only so he could reload more magazines and kill more people. It was an act of tremendous cowardice, shooting people as they have their eyes closed in prayer, shooting them on the ground,” according to Post and Courier.
According to the L.A. Times, assistant U.S. attorney Stephen Curan added, “He was 21 when he did this. He was old enough to vote. He was old enough to join the military.… He was old enough to buy a gun. He certainly was old enough to understand the horrific nature of what he was planning to do. He certainly is old enough to be held accountable.”
After the judgment was issued, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley released a statement that said, “It is my hope that the survivors, the families, and the people of South Carolina can find some peace in the fact that justice has been served,” according to the L.A. Times.
Roof’s ultimate fate, however, is still up in the air. The jury will reconvene Jan. 3 to determine if Roof’s crimes should be punished with the death penalty or life imprisonment. If sentenced, he will be the first person in the country to be sentenced to death due to a hate crime following the 2009 Matthew Shepherd act, the L.A. Times reported. He will also face a separate trial with the South Carolina court system Jan. 17.
[Featured Image by Pool/Getty Images]
