The Final Call

Murder Trial For Accused S. C. Church Shooter Scheduled For November

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Sep 21, 2016 - 12:06:53 PM

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Dylann Roof at his bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, June 19, 2015. Photo: MGN Online

COLUMBIA—Despite his defense lawyers’ fight for the death penalty to be thrown off the table, the federal murder trial for Dylann Storm Roof, the admitted shooter in the Charleston, S.C. church massacre, is scheduled for this November. Mr. Roof, 22, an avowed White supremacist fatally shot nine Black parishioners and wounded three others during Bible study at Emanuel African Meth-odist Episcopalian Church in June of last year. 

Citing the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Mr. Roof’s attorney’s questioned if the death penalty fits guidelines for “cruel and unusual” punishment. They submitted nearly 3,000 pages of past cases, media articles and expert witnesses arguing against capital punishment and defects connected with its use.

“The death penalty is unreliable, arbitrary, and so complicated that jurors frequently misapply it,” Sarah Gannett, an Arizona based public defender and member of Mr. Roof’s defense team said in court documents. “In a prosecution as consequential as this one, the court should not allow procedures that are proven to be flawed.”

However Federal prosecutors maintain sufficient charges exist within the 33 counts Mr. Roof faces to warrant death.  U.S. Federal Judge Richard Gergel previously heard arguments from both sides about the penalty in the case. Mr. Roof’s legal team has offered a guilty plea and life in prison in exchange for the death penalty. Their argument was the most recent attempt by the defense leading up to the trial, to reverse the government’s call for capital punishment.

Because of the heinous nature of the crime, not everyone agrees Mr. Roof should get life instead of death. The nine victims killed included: Susie Jackson, 87; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49;  the Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45; Ethel Lance, 70; Myra Thompson, 59 and Cynthia Hurd, 54.

“It would not bother me one single bit if he was sentenced to death,” said James Flowers, an 18 year veteran in law enforcement who was involved in the hunt for Mr. Roof, the night of the killings.

 “If there was ever a case for capital punishment this will be the one,” he added.

 “I think that a person who walks into a place of worship and in cold blood murders nine people, he deserves the highest level of punishment that we have at our disposal,” said Mr. Flowers.

In 2015 a Grand Jury handed down a federal indictment against Mr. Roof that said he deliberately targeted Emanuel AME because it was a Black and historical church. It said Roof purchased the weapon three months before the premeditated act of mayhem. He told authorities his intention was to trigger a race war in the streets of America.

Earlier this year U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the Justice Department formerly moved to apply capital punishment if Mr. Roof is convicted.

Meanwhile Mr. Roof’s attorneys petitioned the court to suppress some evidence from the trial amid controversy and condemnation from media outlets directed at Judge Richard Mark Gergel who closed a September 1 hearing on the request. Judge Gergel wrote he barred media and public access in the best interest of the jury selection process and the Sixth Amendment right of Mr. Roof for a fair trial. He called it a rare case where that right outweighed the public’s first amendment right to know and follow the proceeding.

Judge Gergel overruled objections from media lawyers representing The Charleston Post Dispatch and local television station WCBD-TV arguing against the closed hearing.

Another effort by the defense was their attempt to secure a bench trial for Mr. Roof before a lone judge without a jury. Prosecutors and Judge Gergel outright rejected that request. 

The federal government advised the court it wouldn’t consent, respectfully requesting a jury determines the fate and appropriate punishment, assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson wrote at the time.

As the court prepares for jury selection, the prosecution moved to block the possibility of Mr. Roof attorneys addressing the jury and giving a “mercy instruction” before deliberations that they are not ever required to recommend the death penalty.

Outside the Court, over the year since the killings, media highlighted victims’ family members and some clergy expressing forgiveness for Mr. Roof.

“I don’t have any mercy in me for Mr. Dylann Roof. He didn’t have any mercy for the nine people that he slaughtered—while they were praying,” remarked community organizer Craig Khanwell.  “How wicked can you be? So to ask for any kind of leniency for that guy is a travesty of justice; it definitely offends the face of God.”

Mr. Khanwell said it’s only respect for due process of law that Roof’s fate is being argued. “It’s a shame we had to wait over a year to get justice,” he said.

The federal trial is set for November starting with both prosecuting and defense attorneys vetting a group of 3,000 people summoned as potential jurors. Jury selection starts Nov. 7 and opening arguments begin after a jury of 12 people and six alternates are selected.