Dylann Roof to represent himself at trial in Charleston church shootings
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this June 18, 2015 photo, Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C.
A federal judge ruled today that Dylann S. Roof, who was charged in the massacre of nine black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015, can represent himself in his federal death-penalty trial.
The judge, Richard M. Gergel of U.S. District Court in Charleston, called the request by Roof, 22, “strategically unwise,” but allowed him to have a lawyer present as backup.
“I do find defendant has the personal capacity to self-representation,” Gergel said, according to The Post & Courier. He added, “It is a decision you have the right to make.”
Roof had been represented by David I. Bruck, a noted death-penalty lawyer, who slid over from the lead chair after the judge’s decision. The ruling came days after Roof was found competent to stand trial.
The Justice Department is seeking the death penalty for Roof, a self-described white supremacist who is accused of the fatal shootings on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The charges against Roof include hate crimes resulting in death. The main question in his case has concerned whether he would receive the death penalty in a second phase after a determination of guilt.
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Last week, he offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors refused the deal.
Jury selection began on Monday.
© 2016 The New York Times Company
5 responses to “Dylann Roof to represent himself at trial in Charleston church shootings”
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Should be a speedy trial with ten minutes of jury deliberation (unless they pause for a free lunch).
(but then the appeals will last forever because there’s no way he should have been allowed to represent himself.)
It’s all well to second-guess a judge’s decision, but barring some obvious mental defect (and virulent racism doesn’t qualify) self-representation is his right under the law.
He’s good as dead…..
This is ridiculous. If he offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, they should have taken the deal.
It’s cheaper not to go to trial. Less risk that the jury will find him not guilty at trial. And it keeps him in prison forever, which is still cheaper than the cost to execute someone due to all the appeals that follow when someone is on death row.