On 12/11/2016 6:00 PM, BOZ wrote:
> On Saturday, December 10, 2016 at 7:55:31 PM UTC-4, Anthony Marsh wrote:
>> Police investigating break-in, racist graffiti at home of Giants player
>> Nikita Whitlock's home was vandalized with 'KKK,' a swastika and racial
>> slurs, police say
>>
>> Jared Dubin mugshot
>> by Jared Dubin @jadubin5 Dec 08, 2016 ??? 2 min read
Since you are ou resident expert on hate crimes I thought I'd ask you a
question about the Dylan Roof case:
NATION
Jurors find Dylann Roof guilty in hate crime shootings in South Carolina
church
Dylann Roof's two death penalty trials
The 22-year-old man charged with killing nine black worshipers at the
historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. faces two death penalty
trials, a first in U.S. history.
Jenny Jarvie
A federal jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially motivated
slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina.
The jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations.
They convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges.
They will reconvene next month to decide whether he should get the death
penalty or be sentenced to life in prison.
Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout
the trial.
After presenting a mass of evidence against Roof, prosecutors wrapped up
their case earlier Thursday, arguing the jury had a simple task to hold
the ???cold and calculated??? 22-year-old accountable for ???every round
he fired??? and ???every person he killed.???
???A man of immense hatred walked that room shooting person after person
after person,??? Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan Williams told the jury during
the government???s closing arguments. ???A man whose actions show him to
be a person of tremendous cowardice, shooting them when they had their
eyes closed, shooting them when they were in prayer.???
???There is no doubt in this case,??? Williams said as he ran through
charges that Roof committed hate crimes resulting in death. ???He targeted
those individuals because of their race.
???They were praying. They were shot,??? he said as he outlined charges
that Roof had engaged in the obstruction of the exercise of religion.
???This is easy.???
Roof???s defense attorney did not bother to dispute the government???s
evidence. Jurors already have watched Roof confess in a taped FBI
interview. They have heard from two survivors who identified him as the
shooter. They have seen closed-circuit television footage of him exiting
the church with a weapon in his hand.
Instead, attorney David Bruck urged jurors to dig deeper and look
???beyond the surface??? in considering what motivated his client to
commit the crime. Roof, he suggested, was delusional.
???The issue in this case from the beginning has been and continues to be
why,??? Bruck told jurors. ???Consider the mad energy, the irrationality,
the senselessness. Consider where it came from, how illogical the entire
story was.
???There is something wrong with his perceptions,??? Bruck said.
Repeatedly, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel reprimanded Bruck for
bringing up the subject of Roof???s mental state.
Bruck is representing Roof only during the guilt phase of the trial. The
high school dropout has chosen to defend himself during the sentencing
stage, when jurors decide whether to impose life in prison or death. The
rare move essentially will relegate the renowned capital-defense attorney
to a back seat in what most agree is the most critical phase of the trial.
The Department of Justice has brought 33 charges against Roof: 12 counts
of committing a hate crime against black victims, 12 counts of obstructing
the exercise of religion and nine counts of using a firearm to commit
murder. It is seeking the death penalty on the basis of Roof???s ???lack
of remorse??? and his ???animosity towards African Americans.???
Prosecutors have spent six days methodically outlining their case
against Roof, introducing a long procession of first responders, FBI
agents, expert witnesses and survivors of the June 17, 2015, massacre
at Emanuel AME Church.
Jury in church massacre trial watches Dylann Roof's confession: 'We all
know I'm guilty'
Jury in church massacre trial watches Dylann Roof's confession: 'We all
know I'm guilty'
On Wednesday, Bruck rested the defense case in a matter of minutes,
without submitting any evidence or calling a single witness.
Roof, who is pleading not guilty but has repeatedly offered to admit guilt
in exchange for a life sentence, has not stated publicly any reasons for
representing himself. Yet many following the case believe he is seeking to
hide evidence of mental instability that his lawyers would highlight in a
bid to spare his life.
During the last week, Bruck has repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully, to
present the jury with evidence that would show Roof has some form of
mental illness or impairment.
On Wednesday, after the prosecution rested its case, Gergel refused to let
Bruck introduce two mental health experts ??? a psychiatrist and a
psychologist ??? arguing that such testimony had no bearing on the issue
of his guilt, the State newspaper reported. After Roof declined to
testify, Bruck rested his case.
The rift between Roof and his defense team emerged last month when
Roof???s attorneys raised questions about their client???s mental state,
asking the judge to declare Roof incompetent to stand trial. Gergel
ordered Roof to take a psychiatric competency assessment, yet little is
known about Roof???s mental condition because the two-day hearing was
closed to the public.
Ultimately, Gergel found Roof capable of standing trial, stating he had an
???extremely high IQ??? and was able to understand legal proceedings.
Gergel then allowed Roof to represent himself.
In a court motion before the trial began, Roof???s attorneys noted that
capital defendants sometimes choose to represent themselves so they can
prevent presentation of evidence during the sentencing phase that they
???cannot bear to have revealed.???
Bruck has a long career representing death-row defendants. More than 20
years ago, he helped win a life sentence for Susan Smith, a South
Carolina mother who was found guilty of drowning her two sons in a lake.
In 2015, he defended Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death for
his role in bombing the 2013 Boston Marathon.
On Thursday, Bruck urged the jury to explore not just whether Roof
committed the crime, but who he is and why he did it. He drew attention
to example after example of Roof???s odd behavior: his apparent inability,
a day after the crime, to judge how many people he had killed; his
unwillingness to make small talk with investigators; his admission to
FBI agents that he didn???t have a best friend.
???He tells the FBI, ???I???m not delusional,??? ??? Bruck said to the
jury. ???When someone says that, common sense tells you he might be
delusional.???
His client, he noted, wore sweatpants under his jeans in the sweltering
South Carolina heat. He took hundreds of photos of his cat, yet none of
a fellow human being.
Bruck said Roof was not an original thinker, but someone ???regurgitating,
in whole paragraphs, slogans and facts, bits and pieces. ??? He downloaded
from the Internet directly into his brain.???
???Don???t be distracted by the defense counsel arguments suggesting
there???s a deeper meaning to this,??? Asst. U.S. attorney Stephen Curran
countered. ???It???s not that complicated. ??? The answer is obvious. The
reason is violent racism still exists. ??? There are still people who will
murder, still people who will kill, because of the color of someone???s
skin.???
Nothing the defense attorney said, Curran argued, came close to
undermining Roof???s guilt.
???He was 21 when he did this,??? Curran said. ???He was old enough to vote.
He was old enough to join the military. ??? He was old enough to buy a
gun. He certainly was old enough to understand the horrific nature of
what he was planning to do. He certainly is old enough to be held
accountable.???
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Jarvie is a special correspondent.
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UPDATES:
12:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with the Roof???s conviction.
12:25 p.m.: This article has been updated with details, including the
beginning of jury deliberations.
This article was originally published at 7:05 a.m.
So he was found guilty on all counts of committing hate crimes. But can
you tell us how many of the victims it was because of race and how many
because of religion? Were any of the victims white or Jewish?