Dylann Roof: white supremacist appeals death penalty on mental health grounds
Roof, who killed nine people at Emanuel AME church, argues he had schizophrenia when he represented himself at trial
Dylann Roof, a white supremacist responsible for the 2015 massacre of nine black church members in South Carolina, appealed his convictions and death sentence on Tuesday, arguing that he was suffering from schizophrenia and other psychological disorders when he represented himself at his capital trial.
In a legal brief filed with the 4th US circuit court of appeals in Richmond, Roof’s lawyers said that when a judge allowed him to represent himself during the penalty phase of his federal trial, he was a 22-year-old ninth-grade dropout “who believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war”.
Roof’s appellate lawyers said Roof fired his trial lawyers to prevent evidence of his mental illness from being presented to the jury. They argued that because of the court’s “rush to move the case along”, the jury never heard any mitigating evidence.
“Roof’s crime was tragic, but this court can have no confidence in the jury’s verdict,” Roof’s attorneys argued.
Roof became the first person to be ordered executed for a federal hate crime when he was sentenced to death for fatally shooting nine black church members at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, on 17 June 2015.
Prosecutors said he specifically chose Emanuel AME, the South’s oldest black church, to carry out the massacre. After he was arrested, Roof told FBI agents that he wanted the shootings to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war.
The jury’s verdict came after a trial in which the avowed white supremacist did not show any remorse or attempt to fight for his life. Roof served as his own attorney during the sentencing phase and never explained why he committed the massacre.
Roof’s legal advisers repeatedly expressed frustration that Roof wouldn’t allow them to introduce mental health evidence that could possibly spare his life.
Roof asked jurors to forget anything they’d heard from his legal team about his mental state, declaring, “there’s nothing wrong with me psychologically”.
“I still feel like I had to do it,” Roof said in his closing argument.
“Anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for it.”
After the trial, documents unsealed in federal court included a psychiatrist’s finding that Roof showed signs of social anxiety, schizoid personality and possible autism spectrum disorders.
Prosecutors told the jury that Roof walked into the church and sat with the Bible study group for about 45 minutes, then opened fire during the final prayer, when everyone’s eyes were closed.
The jury convicted Roof of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes.
The massacre prompted South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from its statehouse for the first time in more than half a century. Roof had posed with the flag in photos.
The slain included the Rev Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor and a state senator; a high school track coach; the church sexton; a librarian; and an aspiring poet.
Source: theguardian.com, Associated Press, January 29, 2020
Dylann Roof appeals death penalty, conviction in Emanuel AME mass shooting
Man convicted of killing 9 church members at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charelston files for an appeal
Columbia, SC (AP) — The self admitted white supremacist who was convicted in one of the worst mass shootings in South Carolina history is fighting his guilty verdict and his sentence of death.
According to the Associated Press, 25 year old Dylann Roof has entered an appeal for both his conviction and death penalty for the shooting nine members of Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME church as they worshiped during bible study back in June of 2015.
According to authorities, Roof sat inside the church with parishioners for nearly an hour before opening fire in the sanctuary, according to him, in an effort to begin a race war.
Tuesday, in Richmond, Virginia Federal Court, Roof argued that while he was defending himself during his Capital trial he was suffering from schizophrenia and other psychological disorders. Information he refused to let his defense team presented to the jury during the trial.
In fact, his legal team wanted to release information about Roof’s mental health, they believe could have spared him from the death penalty.
Roof however, at the time, asked the jury to not to take anything they heard from his legal advisers into consideration saying, “there’s nothing wrong with me psychologically.”
According to Roof’s appellate lawyers who issued a 321 page legal brief filed in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court Tuesday, asking the court to review 20 issues, including errors they say were made by the judge and prosecutors they say “tainted” his sentencing. Appellate lawyers arguing “the federal trial shouldn’t have happened at all.”
They went on to say, the state quickly brought capital charges against Roof’s “wholly-intrastate crime,” but months later, federal prosecutors sought their own death sentence. They argue that state officials “viewed the federal prosecution as unnecessary and disruptive. and said “This court should vacate Roof’s convictions and death sentence,”
During Roof’s federal case, he was found guilty on 33 federal charges including hate crimes and sentenced to nine life sentences.
Source:
abccolumbia.com, Associated Press, January 28, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
