Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers South Carolina, have recused themselves from hearing Roof’s appeal; one of their own, Judge Jay Richardson, prosecuted Roof’s case as an assistant U.S. Attorney.
The only reason Roof shirked his trial team to represent himself, appellate attorney Alexandra Yates argued Tuesday, was because the trial judge gave him a choice: either keep his attorneys and allow in mental health evidence, or get rid of them and keep it out.
If unsuccessful in his direct appeal, Roof could file what’s known as a 2255 appeal, or a request that the trial court review the constitutionality of his conviction and sentence. He could also petition the U.S. Supreme Court or seek a presidential pardon. Advertisement. World & Nation.
W hite supremacist Dylann Roof, who is responsible for taking the lives of nine Black worshippers in the 2015 mass shooting of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston appealed his convictions and death sentence on Tuesday, the AP reports. Roof’s lawyers are claiming that the 25-year-old who insisted on representing himself and refused to let his defense team argue that he suffered from mental illness, is now asserting that he was mentally ill when defending himself at his capital trial in 2017. His attorneys have said that the court overlooked evidence to prove that Roof was diagnosed with “schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, autism, anxiety, and depression,” which “tainted” his sentencing.
District Judge Richard Gergel should not have allowed the then-22-year-old to defend himself because he was a ninth grade dropout “w ho believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war.”
Dylann Roof spent his early years shuttling back and forth between his mother and father, who had divorced in 1991, four years before he was born, according to court documents. When it came to school, he struggled – and his attendance was poor. Roof was “very transient,” said one White Knoll High School official.
Dylann Roof fatally shot nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina last year. His trial is set to begin in early 2017. Dylann Roof fatally shot nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina last year. His trial is set to begin in early 2017.
A drunken Roof boasted one night about an unspecified six-month plan “to do something crazy, ” his friend Joey Meek told CNN on Friday. The young man typically kept to himself but a liter of vodka that night seemed to fuel talk about the return of segregation and vague plans “to start a race war,” Meek recalled.
The 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin – the black Florida teen killed by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder – prompted Roof to research online what he called “black on white crime,” the manifesto said. “At this moment I realized that something was very wrong,” the manifesto said.
Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime. The wedding of Roof’s sister, planned for this weekend, has been postponed, according to the Rev. Tony Metze, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina. Metze said he met with Roof’s immediate family on Friday.
Dylann Roof is currently on death row at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Post and Courier reported that Roof claims being repeatedly targeted and harassed by guards and his fellow inmates.
Throughout his incarceration, Dylann Roof has kept journals and sent letters to family and friends. As reported by Charleston's WCBD News 2, his writings emphasize his lack of remorse and his conviction that the murders were justified. In one particularly chilling journal entry, Roof said he had no sympathy for any of his victims.