Appeals court rejects Dylann Roof’s effort to remove Charleston federal judge from his case

Mass murderer Dylann Roof’s effort to remove the federal judge who presided over his trial from future steps in his appeal has been rejected.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said Aug. 13 it would not force the recusal of U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston.

Roof is seeking a new trial 10 years after he murdered nine African American parishioners at the historic Emanuel AME Church. Roof’s appeal is based on his attorney’s admission that he made several mistakes during the trial, including eliciting harmful testimony.

Roof’s April appeal accused Gergel of bias based on statements from a law student observing the trial, who thought the judge had an attitude toward Roof that conveyed a sense he should be put to death.

Roof was sentenced to death in January 2017 following his conviction on 33 federal crimes, including nine counts of the capital offense obstruction of the exercise of religion resulting in death.

Roof killed nine members of the church during a Wednesday night Bible study on June 17, 2015.

The appellate court's ruling described the method Roof was using to remove Gergel from his case as a “drastic remedy” reserved for “extraordinary situations.”

The order read that the request is “based almost entirely on hearsay evidence that Judge Gergel desired to preside over the case.”

It additionally says that even if the hearsay were true, it did not meet the threshold for recusal.

Roof is being housed in a maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Source: postandcourier.com, Alan Hovorka, August 14, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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