Ebun Francis with agency report
Dylan Roof a white supremacist that killed nine black people at a South Carolina Church in 2015 has been sentenced to death for the racially motivated killings. He was was convicted last month of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes, after opening fire on a Bible study group in a Church.
Dylan Roof remained unrepentant and had told the jury: “I felt like I had to do it and I still feel like I had to do it.”
The jurors deliberated for nearly three hours before reaching their verdict.
The massacre shocked the nation and reignited a debate about race relations and the flying of the Confederate flag.
The massacre led to the flag being removed from the South Carolina statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years.
The judge will issue a formal sentence on Wednesday morning.
After the sentence was announced, the 22-year-old killer stood and requested to be appointed new lawyers and to file for a retrial.
US District Judge Richard Gergel replied that he was “strongly disinclined” and instructed Roof to think about it overnight.