Death Penalty to Be Sought in Charleston Shootings, Court Papers Show
South Carolina will seek the death penalty against the white man charged in the June killings of nine black people at a Charleston church, court documents showed Thursday.
Dylann Roof, 21, faces multiple charges including nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge for the June 17 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Ninth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson scheduled a news conference Thursday regarding the case against Roof. In the court filings, she wrote that «Dylann Storm Roof by his act of murder knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place.»
Roof’s state trial is scheduled for July 2016. He has been indicted separately on 33 federal hate crime charges, some of which are also eligible for the death penalty.
Some information for this report came from Reuters