CHARLESTON, S. C. — One by one, family members of nine slain black parishioners confronted Dylann Roof for the last time Wednesday, shouting at him, offering forgiveness and even offering to visit him in prison as he awaits execution for the slaughter.
The 22-year-old avowed white supremacist refused to meet their gaze and simply stared ahead, his head tilted down slightly as it had been for much of his trial.
“Dylann,” Janet Scott said quietly as she started speaking. “Dylann! DYLANN!” she said, her voice rising. Toward the end of her remarks, she said, “I wish you would look at me, boy.”
Scott, an aunt of 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, the youngest victim killed in the massacre, demanded that Roof look at her as she talked about her nephew’s “great big heart,” which could not be donated because of the police investigation.
The final statements came a day after jurors sentenced an unrepentant Roof to death. The gunman had one final opportunity to ask for mercy but instead told jurors he still “felt like I had to do it.”
On Wednesday, U. S. District Judge Richard Gergel formally confirmed the sentence, saying “This hate, this viciousness, this moral depravity will not go unanswered.”
Some family members already testified at Roof’s trial. The formal sentencing hearing gave 35 of them a chance to speak directly to him, without prosecutors or the judge interrupting or asking questions.
Roof also had an opportunity to speak but declined to say anything. He is the first person ordered executed for a federal hate crime.
Some of the relatives looked directly at Roof. Others chose to look at jurors, who did not have to be in court Wednesday but told the judge they wanted to attend.
Sheila Capers, the sister-in-law of Cynthia Hurd, said she prayed for Roof’s soul to be saved.
“If at any point before you are sentenced and you’re in prison and you want me to come and pray with you, I will do that,” Capers said.
Felicia Sanders, who survived the attack, said she forgave Roof. But, she noted, Roof did nothing to save himself.
He served as his own attorney during the sentencing phase and never explained the massacre, expressed remorse or asked for his life to be spared.
Sanders told Roof he still lives in her head, and that when she hears a balloon pop or fireworks, it returns her to that night.
“Most importantly, I can’t shut my eyes to pray,” Sanders said.
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Volkswagen AG has agreed to a $4.3 billion settlement to resolve the U. S. government’s civil and criminal investigations into the German automaker’s diesel emissions cheating, two sources briefed on the matter said Wednesday.
U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy will announce the settlement in Washington on Wednesday at a news conference, the government said in a statement.
Reuters has learned that prosecutors may charge additional individuals with criminal conduct as early as today, the sources said.
On Monday, a VW executive, the second VW employee charged by U. S. prosecutors, was accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company’s emissions cheating and the automaker was charged with concealing the cheating from regulators.
The world’s second largest automaker confirmed Tuesday it has negotiated a $4.3-billion concrete draft settlement with U. S. regulators to resolve its diesel emissions issues and plans to plead guilty to criminal misconduct as part of the civil and criminal settlement.
The settlement doesn’t impact the government’s ongoing investigation into individual misconduct by current and former VW employees.
Volkswagen had previously agreed to spend up to $17.5 billion in the United States to resolve claims by U. S. regulators, owners and dealers and offered to buy back nearly 500,000 polluting vehicles. The automaker was in intensive talks with regulators in recent weeks in an effort to reach a deal before the end of the Obama administration.
Without a deal by next week, a final resolution could have been delayed by months until the Trump EPA and Justice Department teams are in place.
VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of U. S. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road, and that as many as 11 million vehicles could have similar software installed worldwide.
Much of the company’s senior management departed following the scandal, including chief executive Martin Winterkorn.

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An unrepentant Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death for fatally shooting nine black church members during a ‘Bible’ study session, becoming the first person to be executed for a federal hate crime.
A jury deliberated for about three hours before returning with the decision, capping a trial in which the 22-year-old avowed white supremacist did not fight for his life or show any remorse. He served as his own attorney during sentencing and never asked for forgiveness or mercy or explained the massacre.
Hours earlier, Roof threw away one last chance to plead for his life, telling jurors, “I still feel like I had to do it. ”
The slain included the Rev Clementa Pinckney, the church pastor and a state senator, as well as a high school track coach, the church sexton, a librarian and an aspiring poet. They all shared deep devotion to the church, known as Mother Emanuel, and passed that faith along to their families, many of whom offered Roof forgiveness when he appeared in court just days after the attack.
As Roof spoke on Tuesday for about five minutes, every juror looked directly at him. A few nodded as he reminded them that they said during jury selection they could fairly weigh the factors of his case. Only one of them, he noted, had to disagree to spare him from a lethal injection.
“I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good it would do anyway,” he said. When the verdict was read, he stood stoic. Several family members of victims wiped away quiet tears.
Roof told FBI agents when they arrested him after the June 17, 2015, slayings that he wanted the shootings to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war.
Instead, the slayings had a unifying effect, as South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its Statehouse for the first time in more than 50 years. Other states followed suit, taking down Confederate banners and monuments. Roof had posed with the flag in photos.
Malcolm Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was slain, said the jury made the right decision.
“There is no room in America’s smallest jail cell for hatred, racism and discrimination,” he said from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. “The journey for me and my family today has come to an end. ”
One of Ms Hurd’s other brothers, Melvin Graham, said the jury’s decision “was a very hollow victory” because his sister is still gone.
“He decided the day, the hour and minute my sister was going to die. Now someone is going to do it for him,” he said.
Roof specifically selected Emanuel AME Church, the South’s oldest black church, to carry out the cold, calculated slaughter, assistant US attorney Jay Richardson said.

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