After weeks of agonizing testimony from victims and graphic evidence racist Dylann Roof has been found guilty.
Roof gunned down nine members of Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, during a Bible study meeting. The crime shocked the nation and President Barack Obama sang “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of victim Clementa C. Pinckney, a South Carolina legislator, pastor and civil rights activist.
After the slaughter, police infamously took Roof to a Charleston Burger King because he was hungry.
Roof confessed to his crime in a two-hour video that was shown to the jury and has stated that he wanted to start a race war. He felt that Blacks were raping White women and murdering White people and something had to be done since the KKK was doing nothing. Emotional testimony from a surviving victim Felicia Sanders, riveted the courtroom as she described Roof as “evil, evil, evil” and said he belonged in “the pit of hell.”
Sanders repeatedly locked eyes with Roof and stated, “He just sits there the whole time. Evil, evil, evil as can be.”
Sanders also said that when she heard that Roof was saying that he wanted to kill himself, “I was counting on that. There’s no place on Earth for him other than the pit of hell.”
Shortly after Sanders’ testimony, Roof’s biological mother, Amelia Cowles, suffered a heart attack and fell unconscious.
Roof was found guilty on all 33 charges, including hate crime resulting in death, federal gun charges and murder, all of which made him eligible for the Federal Death Penalty Act. The jury rendered their decision after six days of courtroom testimony and two hours of deliberation. Now the trial will move into the penalty phase during which Roof will either be sentenced to death or receive a life sentence for his crimes.
Roof still faces charges from the state of South Carolina for his mass murder spree and is also eligible for the death penalty under South Carolina law.
