Dylann Roof Appeals Death Sentence From 2015 Mass Shooting

Dylann Roof has been in court this week to appeal his case.

Dylann Roof is the person responsible for the mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, South Carolina. The shooting, which killed 9 people, took place in 2015. In 2017, Roof was sentenced to death by the jury and has since remained on death row.

White nationalist Dylann Roof was the first person to be sentenced to death for a federal hate crime. This past week, Roof returned to the courtroom in an attempt to appeal this ruling. His legal team is arguing that he was, at the time, unfit to stand trial.

During his trial in 2016, Roof represented himself during his sentencing to avoid an insanity plea from his legal team. His legal team provided evidence of Roof’s mental diagnoses, including psychosis, anxiety, depression, and autism (ASD). Despite this, Roof assured the jury by saying “there’s nothing wrong with me psychologically. Anything you heard from my lawyers in the last phase, I ask you to forget it,” in his statement. He proceeded to add that he did not feel remorse for the crimes he committed.

It is evident to the court and the public that Roof was meticulous and strategic with his actions. He was aware of the consequences of his actions and still carried out the massacre. Because of this, a change in his verdict on the count that he is unable to decipher right from wrong is unlikely.

A brief from the justice department states: “Roof’s convictions rest on sound legal and constitutional grounds. It is clear that his decisions before and during the tragedy were not ones of a person who didn’t know right from wrong. In fact, it seemed he made his decision based on that moral ground entirely.”

For official information on Dylann Roof’s case, click here.