Seth Udinski, FISM News
Last week, a court in South Carolina unanimously rejected a move to substitute another punishment in place of the death sentence for mass shooter Dylann Roof. Roof murdered nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June of 2015 during a Bible study. According to reports and statements from Roof himself, the crime was racially motivated.
The panel said,
Roof murdered African Americans at their church, during their Bible-study and worship. They had welcomed him. He slaughtered them. He did so with the express intent of terrorizing not just his immediate victims at the historically important Mother Emanuel Church, but as many similar people as would hear of the mass murder. No cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did. His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose.
Roof, now 27 years-old, was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to death in 2017. According to a report from The Associated Press, Roof was unrepentant for his actions. He said to a jury,
Anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for it…I still feel like I had to do it.
It is unknown when his execution will take place.