Charleston Church Killer Dylann Roof Learns His Fate

Jury sentences him to death
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 10, 2017 4:05 PM CST
Charleston Church Killer Dylann Roof Learns His Fate
FILE -In this Friday, June 19, 2015 file photo, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. lead a crowd of people in prayer outside the Emanuel AME Church, after a memorial for the nine people killed by Dylann Roof in Charleston, S.C. A federal jury will consider whether Roof should be sentenced to death...   (Stephen B. Morton)

A federal jury has sentenced Dylann Roof to death for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack in 2015, the AP reports. Roof, who is white, faced either life in prison or execution for the slayings on June 17, 2015. The Justice Department says he is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes. The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations. Roof was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During sentencing, he represented himself and told jurors he didn't have a mental illness. But he didn't offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared. Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings. (More Dylann Roof stories.)

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