Dylann Roof Found Guilty on 33 Counts of Murder, Hate Crimes in Charleston Massacre

Source: http://ift.tt/nl78FH - Thursday, December 15, 2016
A jury took less than two hours to convict Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine Charleston church parishioners in 2015. After an emotional seven-day federal trial, Roof was found guilty of all 33 charges of murder, attempted murder and federal hate crimes. Roof, 22, will face either the death penalty or life imprisonment for his crimes, for which he confessed in a chilling interview with investigators. The issue, then, before the court was not whether or not Roof carried out the massacre , but if this could be constituted as a hate crime. He was found guilty on all 33 counts , including committing hate crimes that resulted in death, on Thursday afternoon in Charleston. During closing arguments, a prosecutor described Roof’s shooting as an act of “tremendous cowardice” fueled by “cold, calculated hatred.” The victims were displayed before the court both as they lived - smiling and happy - and as they died, ravaged with bullets and covered in blood. Astonishingly, the defendant only only he admitted he carried out the crime, but did so out of duty and in hopes of starting a race war. After his arrest, Roof told investigators he “had to” shoot up the church, accusing other white supremacist groups of being such in name only. “I had to do it because somebody had to do it,” he said. In his car, a notebook detailing his suck beliefs on whites, blacks, Latinos, Jews, and other racial and ethnic groups was also found. Roof’

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