Dylann Roof Found Guilty In Killing Of 9 South Carolina Churchgoers

A federal jury on Thursday found Dylann Roof guilty on all 33 counts, including murder and hate crimes, related to the June 2015 massacre of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Closing arguments in the trial of Roof, the 22-year-old South Carolina white supremacist who has admitted to slaying the worshipers in an African-American church, ended Thursday afternoon with defense attorneys acknowledging Roof's responsibility for the deaths but seeking only a life sentence for him. Following his conviction, the real suspense will come in January, when the jury will decide whether to sentence Roof to death or a life in prison.

Eighteen of the 33 counts he was found guilty of carry a maximum sentence of death. Roof had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but the government declined, as federal prosecutors sought the death penalty.

Jurors deliberated for a little more than two hours after closing arguments were delivered Thursday before handing in their 33 guilty verdicts.

Throughout the proceedings, which began last Wednesday, Dec. 7, attorneys representing Roof and federal prosecutors agreed that Roof walked inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston on June 17, 2015 and sat for nearly an hour through a bible study before he removed a Glock .45-caliber pistol from a fanny pack and coldly killed the nine churchgoers, including their pastor.

The jury was shown surveillance video of Roof entering the church, crime-scene photos of the bloodied bodies lying on the floor, then more footage of him leaving the church about an hour later holding his gun. They were also shown video of his two-hour confession to FBI agents on the day he was arrested and heard from a tearful witness who said Roof spared her so she could "tell the story."

Jurors will listen to more evidence in a penalty phase of the trial in January before deciding whether to vote for his death.

Roof had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison, but the government refused. He faced 33 counts, including hate crimes and murder.

"Reaching a conclusion about what these crimes were and who committed them is pretty straightforward," David Bruck, who represented Roof during the trial, said in closing arguments. "He confessed to the most dreadful crime a person could ever confess to," Bruck continued.

It's likely the last time the jury will hear from Bruck.

Roof has decided to represent himself at a sentencing hearing, should one occur, and while U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Gergel called the decision "strategically unwise" he said it was one Roof has "the right to make.”

Since there was little doubt Roof committed the church killings, Bruck instead spent much of closing arguments, as he did throughout the trail, attempting to convince the jury that Roof suffered from mental issues that should spare him is life.

"You have to understand what was going on in his head," Bruck said.

Prosecutors, though, were unyielding in their charge that Roof acted with hate in heart.

“After he killed (Rev.) Clementa Pinckney, he did not stop. He embraced that hatred, and he executed eight more people,” the federal prosecutor said.

Brock argued otherwise, despite manifestos and confessions that contradicted him.

“Roof never gave an explanation for his actions except ‘he had to do it,’" Brock said. "But never gave an answer to ‘why.’”

In Roof's journal entires that were read aloud in court, Roof wrote that blacks enjoyed more privileges in America than whites. And in a confession to FBI agents, he said he chose the church he did because he "knew that would be a place to get a small amount of black people in one area."

“Don’t be distracted by the defense ... suggesting that there’s some deeper meaning," the prosecutor said. "He told you why."

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