Judge says Dylann Roof, accused in fatal SC church shootings, can represent himself

REUTERS

9 years ago

Dylann Roof, the white man charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners during a Bible study at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015. (Charleston County Sheriff’s Office)

A handout photograph posted to a website with a racist manifesto shows Dylann Roof, the suspect in Wednesday’s Charleston church massacre, posing with a Confederate flag in an unknown location. (Handout via Reuters)

Dylann Roof is pictured in this undated photo taken from his Facebook account in a jacket that bears the flags of apartheid-era South Africa (top) and the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. (Reuters)

Police tape surrounds the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church, a predominantly black church where nine people where shot by white suspect Dylann Storm Roof, 21, in June 2015 in Charleston, S.C. (Stephen B. Morton/AP)

Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015. (Jason Miczek/Reuters)

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge on Monday granted a request by Dylann Roof, the white man accused of killing nine black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina church last year, to represent himself at his death penalty trial.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said he believed Roof’s decision was unwise but ruled in court that the defendant had the right and capacity to serve as his own lawyer.

Roof faces 33 counts of hate crimes, obstruction of religion and firearms charges stemming from the massacre carried out at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.