Charleston Church Shooter Dylann Roof Sentenced to Death

Radical white supremacist who killed nine people gets first death penalty verdict in a hate crimes case

dylann roof

Dylann Roof, the radical white supremacist who killed nine black churchgoers during a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, has been sentenced to death.

The jury’s ruling Tuesday against the 22-year-old marks the first time the death penalty verdict has been issued in a hate crimes case.

Earlier on Tuesday, Roof told the jury of nine whites and three blacks in his closing statement, “I still feel like I had to do it,” ABC News reported. It took just hours for the panel to reach a decision in the federal death penalty case in which he was convicted of hate crimes resulting in death, among other charges.

Having previously coolly confessed to his crimes, Roof showed no expression as the verdict was announced, the New York Times reported.

His family later issued a statement saying they will “struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people.”

The former landscaper was found guilty of the June 2015 massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in December.

A manifesto by Roof posted online after the attack revealed his white supremacist sentiments. “I have no choice,” the manifesto read. “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.

“We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet,” it continued. “Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

Despite the ruling, Roof’s fate is still unknown, however.

The federal government has not put anyone to death since 2003, the Times stated, and Roof also faces a separate capital prosecution for murder in South Carolina — where an inmate hasn’t been executed in more than five years.

The state trial, initially set for Jan. 17, has been indefinitely postponed.

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