Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who shot to death nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, has been sentenced to death by a federal jury.
Roof, who was convicted last month of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, was condemned to death on Tuesday by a unanimous jury after about three hours of deliberations.
Roof is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes.
On June 17, 2015, Roof walked into Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The historic black church, affectionately called Mother Emanuel, was hosting a Bible study that evening. The 21-year-old sat down with the parishioners for a while before pulling out a gun and firing.
Federal judge Richard Gergel will formally deliver Roof's sentence on Wednesday morning at the Charleston courthouse. The verdict reached by the jury is binding.
Aljazeera reports that , earlier on Tuesday, the 22-year-old threw away his one last chance to plead for his life in front of the jurors, telling them:
"I still feel like I had to do it."I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I'm not sure what good it would do anyway".
No comments:
Post a Comment