CHARLESTON, S.C. | The Latest on the federal death penalty trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine black people during a South Carolina church Bible study (all times local):

A federal jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina.

The jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations. They convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges.

They will reconvene next month to decide whether he should get the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison.

Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout the trial. </s> Dylann Roof -- the man convicted for the racially motivated mass murder in a South Carolina church -- was just sentenced to death.

Dylann showed little regret during his trial for murdering 9 black worshipers during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church back in June of 2015. He walked into the church and shot the churchgoers in cold blood.

Likewise, he showed zero remorse Tuesday in court ... where he represented himself and told jurors he felt like he had to kill his victims, and "I still feel like I have to do it."

The 12 person jury deliberated just 3 hours before announcing the sentencing in which Dylann repped himself. </s> CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Latest on the federal death penalty trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine black people during a South Carolina church Bible study (all times local):

A federal jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina.

The jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations. They convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges.

They will reconvene next month to decide whether he should get the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison.

Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout the trial.

Jurors have reached a verdict in the federal death penalty trial of a man charged with killing nine black parishioners during Bible study at a South Carolina church.

The verdict will be announced soon on the guilt or innocence of 22-year-old Dylann Roof.

The jury of nine white people and three black people deliberated less than two hours before returning a verdict. Roof faces 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion.

If they find Roof guilty, the same jury will return Jan. 3 to consider if Roof should be sentenced to death for the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

He is slated to face another death penalty trial in state court early next year.

The jury deciding whether Dylann Roof is guilty of killing nine black worshippers at a Charleston church wants to rehear part of his videotaped confession.

The jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel about an hour into their deliberations asking to listen again to Roof being questioned and talking about how many people he might have killed.

Roof told FBI agents he killed about five people, and was later surprised when the agents told him nine people were shot and killed in June 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.

Gergel decided to set up the two-hour confession where jurors could watch as much or as little as they wanted to.

The jury is made up of nine whites and three blacks.

It’s now up to jurors to mull the guilt or innocence of a man charged with slaying nine black worshippers during Bible study at a South Carolina church.

Deliberations are getting underway Thursday afternoon in the case of Dylann Roof. He faces 33 federal charges including hate crimes.

Jurors heard from witnesses who testified Roof made multiple trips to Charleston in the months before the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church. They also heard from two survivors. Roof’s attorneys called no witnesses.

Prosecutors said in their closing arguments Roof was filled with hate and has already confessed to the FBI to his role in the shootings. Defence attorneys portrayed Roof as a suicidal loner who never fully grasped the severity of what he has done.

The jury’s decision must be unanimous. If Roof is convicted, the same panel will reconvene Jan. 3 to begin considering if he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Dylann Roof’s lawyer has asked jurors to consider what was going on in his head as he planned the killings of nine black worshippers in a racially motivated attack at a Charleston church.

Defence attorney David Bruck conceded in his closing argument Thursday that Roof killed the victims at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015 and even praised the FBI investigation.

But Bruck also argued Roof was a suicidal, impressionable loner who never grasped the gravity of what he did.

Prosecutors successfully objected to several of Bruck’s arguments as he tried to argue Roof’s mental status. A judge has ruled that talking about his mental state is reserved for the next phase when jurors — if they find Roof guilty — will decide he if faces the death penalty.

Roof has said he will act as his own attorney during that part of the trial.

A prosecutor says the goodness of the victims who were slaughtered at a Charleston church has defeated Dylann Roof’s message of racial hatred.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams said Thursday in his closing argument that jurors should have no doubt about Roof’s guilt. He apologized before showing crime scene photos of the bodies with small pictures of each person when they were alive beside them.

Williams mocked Roof for calling his actions brave, saying the true bravery was in the black churchgoers who died trying to stop him.

Jurors will consider if Roof, who is white, is guilty of 33 charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.

Federal prosecutors have started their closing argument in Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial by saying the 22-year-old white man targeted nine black church members when they were most vulnerable.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors Thursday that Roof waited until the Bible study group had its eyes closed for prayer before Roof opened fire.

Williams said he was going to concentrate less on the evidence and more on Roof’s hatred, cowardice and immense racial ignorance.

Williams says Roof believed black people were animals and less than human when he violated the sanctuary of the church and killed nine people on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Church.

Roof did not react to Williams’ arguments.

Roof’s attorneys will have a chance to make a closing argument.

Jurors will likely soon be asked to decide if the man accused in the shooting deaths of nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church is guilty of federal hate crimes.

Closing arguments are expected when the jury arrives Thursday morning at Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial. The judge will hand jurors the case a short time later.

Jurors will decide if Roof is guilty or not guilty of 33 separate charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion charges for each of the nine people killed and three who survived the June 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.

If they find Roof guilty, the same jurors will return Jan. 3 for the next phase of the trial to determine if he’s sentenced to death or life in prison. </s> CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Dylann Roof was convicted today in the chilling attack on nine black church members who were shot to death last year during a Bible study, affirming the prosecution's portrayal of a young white man who hoped the slayings would start a race war or bring back segregation.

Instead, the single-biggest change to emerge from the June 17, 2015, slayings that shocked the nation was the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years over the Capitol or on the grounds. Roof appeared with the flag in several photos in a racist manifesto.

In his confession to the FBI, the gunman said he carried out the killings after researching "black on white crime" on the internet. He said he chose a church because that setting posed little danger to him.

As the verdict was read, Roof just stared ahead, much as he did the entire trial. Family members of victims held hands and squeezed one another's arms. One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said "guilty." In all, Roof was convicted of 33 counts.

Jurors will reconvene early next month to hear more testimony and decide whether Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison. Roof told the judge again today that he wanted to act as his own attorney during the penalty phase. </s> The State has a team of reporters in Charleston giving up-to-the-minute updates on Dylann Roof’s federal death penalty trial, which started Dec. 7.

Roof is accused of shooting nine black parishioners to death at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston in June of 2015.

Read The State’s live tweets from the Dylann Roof trial: </s> Dylann Roof was convicted Thursday in the chilling attack on nine black church members who were shot to death last year during a Bible study, affirming the prosecution’s portrayal of a young white man who hoped the slayings would start a race war or bring back segregation.

Instead, the single biggest change to emerge from the June 17, 2015, slayings that shocked the nation was the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years over the Capitol or on the grounds. Roof appeared with the flag in several photos in a racist manifesto.

In his confession to the FBI, the gunman said he carried out the killings after researching “black on white crime” on the internet. He said he chose a church because that setting posed little danger to him.

Read more: Dylann Roof laughed while recounting Charleston church slaying in FBI confession

Read more: Dylann Roof to represent himself in court in church shooting trial

Read more: Judge rules Dylann Roof fit to stand trial in U.S. church shooting

As the verdict was read, Roof just stared ahead, much as he did the entire trial. Family members of victims held hands and squeezed one another’s arms. One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said “guilty.” In all, Roof was convicted of 33 counts.

Jurors will reconvene early next month to hear more testimony and decide whether Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison. Roof told the judge again Thursday that he wanted to act as his own attorney during the penalty phase.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams mocked Roof for calling himself brave in his hate-filled journal and during his confession, saying the real bravery came from the victims who tried to stop him as he fired 77 bullets at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.

“Those people couldn’t see the hatred in his heart any more than they could see the .45-calibre handgun and the eight magazines concealed around his waist,” Williams said.

Defence lawyer David Bruck conceded Roof committed the slayings, but he asked jurors to look into his head and see what caused him to become so full of hatred, calling him a suicidal loner who never grasped the gravity of what he did.

The defence put up no witnesses during the seven-day trial. They tried to present evidence about his mental state, but the judge ruled that it did not have anything to do with Roof’s guilt or innocence.

Roof was just imitating what he saw on the internet and believed he had to give his life to “a fight to the death between white people and black people that only he” could see and act on, Bruck said.

Williams’ 50-minute closing argument filled the court with tension. At times, the prosecutor raised his voice, saying Roof was a cold, calculated killer. Some family members of victims dabbed their eyes with tissues, and jurors appeared emotional when Williams, after apologizing to them, showed crime scene photos of each person killed alongside a small picture of them while alive.

Those pictures included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, Emanuel AME’s pastor and a state senator; Myra Thompson, 59, who taught Bible study that night — the same night she was licensed to preach; Cynthia Hurd, 54, a librarian who stayed to support Thompson; Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, who friends said sang like an angel and was also license to preach the day of the shootings; Daniel “Dapper Dan” Simmons, 74, nicknamed for his shiny shoes and fine hats; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, a high school track coach heavily involved in the church’s youth programs; Ethel Lance, 70, the church sexton who kept the bathrooms and building immaculately clean; Susie Jackson, 87, who sang in the choir and sent generations through the church; and Tywanza Sanders, 26, Jackson’s nephew and an aspiring poet who wanted to work with children.

The prosecutor said the good of all those faithful churchgoers prevailed over Roof’s hatred.

“This defendant chose to take their lives. He chose to break their bodies. But he does not get to choose who they were,” Williams said.

In a lengthy recording played earlier at trial, Roof told FBI agents he picked Mother Emanuel because of its historic significance in the black community. The church is the oldest in the South and one of its founders Denmark Vesey led a failed 1822 slave rebellion that drove the church underground.

Roof, who was convicted of federal hate crimes and obstruction of religion, said he had felt compelled to act because of the way blacks treated whites and said the shootings were “minuscule” in comparison.

The prosecutor recounted other evidence, like how Roof sat in the church parking lot for 28 minutes in his car, likely loading the 88 bullets — a number embraced symbolically by white supremacists — into eight magazines. Roof was handed a Bible as he sat in the prayer service for nearly 45 minutes before opening fire when the worshippers closed their eyes for the final prayer. He reloaded a half-dozen times and left behind three survivors, telling one woman that he wanted to keep her alive so that she could tell the world about the shootings.

After the shootings, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley threw her support behind removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse. She had spent years in office calling it a settled issue.

“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,” she said in a statement. </s> A jury is expected to decide as early as Tuesday whether Dylann Roof, the man who killed nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., will become the first person sentenced to death for federal hate crimes.

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Dylann Roof went to a historic black church in Charleston with a gun and a “hateful heart” and should be put to death for opening fire on people who had gathered for Bible study, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told jurors who will soon begin deliberating Roof’s fate that the 12 people at Emanuel AME on the night of June 17, 2015, were God fearing church members who opened the door for a white stranger with a smile. Nine of them were slain and three survived.

“They welcomed a 13th person that night ... with a kind word, a Bible, a handout and a chair,” Richardson said during his closing argument at Roof’s sentencing. “He had come with a hateful heart and a Glock .45.”

Richardson’s argument is expected to be about two hours long. He reminded jurors about each one of the victims and the bloody crime scene that Roof, a 22-year-old white man, left behind in the church’s lower level. Roof waited until the final prayer — when everyone’s eyes were closed — to begin firing. He stood over some of the fallen, shooting them again as they lay on the floor, the prosecutor said.

The jury, which convicted Roof last month of 33 federal crimes, will decide whether Roof should be sentenced to execution or life in prison. </s> Dylann Roof Found Guilty of All Charges in Charleston Massacre

Dylann Roof has been found guilty for killing nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina church on June 17, 2015. Just two hours after closing arguments, the jury handed down a guilty verdict for all 33 federal charges levied against Roof, a white supremacist who gunned down the nine black parishioners, including Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and senior pastor at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church, reportedly because he wanted to start a race war.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams addressed the jury in closing arguments:

"He needs to be held accountable for every bullet," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told the jury, emphasizing what he said was the depth of Roof's hatred. "The parishioners could not have seen the hatred in his heart," Williams said. "He sat and waited until they were at their most vulnerable."

Felicia Sanders, one of three survivors of Roof's violence described the experience of being in the courtroom for his trial, during which time the young racist refused to look at her, or any member of his victims' families.

Roof's conviction is not unexpected. He had confessed to the crime on a video that was played in full during the trial, and had published a manifesto online that detailed his motives.

Despite the confession, Roof plead not guilty to the charges, which include hate crimes charges and nine counts of using a firearm to kill. The sentencing phase of the trial will begin January 3 to decide if Roof will receive the death sentence or life in prison without parole.

On Twitter, there were expressions of anger at Roof's crime and relief at his conviction, though many point out that this is just one guilty verdict, a drop in the bucket in an unjust system that regularly returns not-guilty decisions for white police officers accused of killing black people.



Understand that the Emanuel Nine lived every day in a country that did not value them. Understand that they lived every day in a country had been striving to end their lives. Understand that they lived in a country where the color of their skin made them subject to abuse, neglect, discrimination, poverty, and invisibility. Understand that many of the Emanuel Nine lived through Jim Crow, through racist slurs, through spit in their faces, through overwhelming oppression, through abject dehumanization. Understand that if the Emanuel Nine had instead been shot by trigger-happy police in individual traffic stops, none of their killers would see a day in prison. Understand that they lived every day knowing that.

I'll leave you with the words of President Barack Obama's indelible eulogy after the massacre and, more recently, those of Stranger contributor Ijeoma Oluo from her essay, " The Conviction of Dylann Roof Represents The Very Least We Can Do ": </s> Admitted white nationalist Dylann Roof was quickly convicted by a South Carolina federal jury on Thursday of all 33 hate-crime charges against him in the Charleston church massacre trial.

It took jurors just two hours to find Roof, 22, guilty of fatally shooting nine African-American worshipers as they stood and closed their eyes to pray during a Wednesday night Bible study in the basement of the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.

Roof, who eagerly confessed that he’d hoped to start a race war, stood without apparent emotion in the hushed courtroom as the jury foreman declared him guilty of hate crimes resulting in death, of obstructing religion, and of using a firearm to commit murder.

Related Video Video length 1 minute 25 seconds 1:25 Video shows Dylan Roof performing target practice Video shows Dylan Roof performing target practice

He must now wait until early next year for the penalty phase of the trial, during which the same jury will determine if he will be executed or allowed to live out his life in prison. He said two weeks ago that he plans to act as his own lawyer for that phase.

The majority female and white jury — comprised of one black man and one white man, and two black women and eight white women — had sat through six days of testimony, and began deliberating at 1:15 p.m. Thursday.

The 3:20 p.m. verdict followed closing arguments by both sides earlier in the day.

“There is no bravery in this defendant,” Assistant US Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors, a reference to Roof’s claims that no one else was brave enough to have committed the killings.

Instead, Roof’s “actions show the cowardice that he had on that day,” Williams said. “You can see what kind of hatred he had: a vast hatred that was cold and calculated.”

The prosecutor added, “He must be held accountable for each and every action he took inside that church. For every life he took.”

Roof did not take the stand in his own defense, and his lawyers did not call witnesses on his behalf. Instead, defense lawyer David Bruck used his closings as what may be his only chance to argue against the death penalty.

Bruck tried to portray Roof as an impressionable, suicidal young man whose hatred was fueled by white supremacist websites.

Prosecutors got the last word, though. Assistant US Attorney Stephen Curran told jurors that Roof meticulously planned the attack over the course of months, then made a two-hour taped confession in which he eagerly and cogently celebrated what he’d just done.

“You see a calm, confident, callous man who showed no sign that mental illness had anything to do with it,” Richardson said.
Dylann Roof is convicted of the racially motivated murder of nine black churchgoers in the U.S. city of Charleston, South Carolina.