Dylann Roof sentenced to death for Charleston church massacre

A jury has handed down a death sentence to Dylann Roof, who was convicted of the 2015 hate crime mass murder of nine people at a North Charleston, SC church.

Dylann Roof sentenced

Judge Richard Gergel will formally sentence Roof on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Roof told the jury he still feels he had no choice, reports CNN:

“In my confession to the FBI I told them that I had to do it, and obviously that’s not really true. … I didn’t have to do anything,” Roof said as he made his own five-minute closing argument in the penalty phase of his federal trial. “But what I meant when I said that was, I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it.”

“From what I’ve been told, I have a right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good that will do anyway,” Roof said. “But what I will say is only one of you has to disagree with the other jurors.”

His statement followed a prosecutor’s impassioned, two-hour argument in a Charleston courtroom urging jurors to give Roof the death penalty instead of their other option, life in prison without possibility of parole.

Hate crime

Roof, an open white supremacist, shot and killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June 2015.

Jurors convicted him last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges.