Dylann Roof, Racist South Carolina Church Shooter, Must Keep Jewish, Indian Lawyers

CHARLESTON, SC — Dylann Roof — the 22-year-old white supremacist who killed nine black worshippers at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church two years ago in Charleston — cannot fire his Jewish and Indian attorneys who have appealed the sentence.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied Roof's handwritten request — filed Monday — to replace the lawyers and needed just 11 words to do it.

Roof wrote: "It will be impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies."

The appeals court in denying that request wrote: "The court denies the motion for substitution of counsel on appeal." (For more information on Dylann Roof's case and other Charleston stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Roof was found guilty of committing the June 2015 massacre, a racist attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. His lawyers did not fight the claim that he had committed the crime.

His own writings indicated Roof became radicalized into white supremacy after Trayvon Martin's killing and the subsequent trial of George Zimmerman. Roof became increasingly consumed by fears of race-based crimes directed against whites, followed white supremacist websites and sought to start a race war.

Photo credit: Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images