CHARLESTON, South Carolina\u2014A US jury on Tuesday condemned self-described white supremacist Dylann Roof to death over the massacre of nine black worshippers in a South Carolina church in June 2015 \u2014 a crime that shocked the nation.
Roof, 22, was convicted last month of 33 federal charges \u2014 including hate crimes resulting in death \u2014 in connection with the shooting spree at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston.
READ: Jurors convict Dylann Roof on all counts in church slayings
A Bible study group at \u201cMother Emanuel,\u201d which had welcomed Roof, was just beginning its closing prayer when the self-avowed Nazi and Ku Klux Klan sympathizer opened fire, killing nine people ranging in age from 26 to 87.
The slayings once again exposed the deep divides in America over race and access to guns.
BACKSTORY: 9 fatally shot at historic black church in South Carolina
Roof showed little reaction to the decision, delivered just hours after the 12-member jury retired to deliberate, though he occasionally seemed to be slightly smiling.
Federal judge Richard Gergel will formally deliver Roof\u2019s sentence on Wednesday morning at the Charleston courthouse. The verdict unanimously reached by the jury is binding.
\u201cI still feel like I had to do it,\u201d Roof told jurors earlier in a semi-coherent closing argument.
Roof represented himself in the sentencing phase of the trial, against the advice of his lawyers and the judge. He called no witnesses and offered no evidence for the jury to consider.
After the jury offered its sentencing verdict, Roof asked for new attorneys so he could move for a retrial, but Gergel told him to provide specific reasons for his request on Wednesday.
Relatives of the victims will be invited to speak at Wednesday\u2019s hearing.
\u2018Not one tear\u2019
Earlier, prosecutor Jay Richardson urged jurors to sentence Roof to death for \u201cthis cold, calculated, malicious killing.\u201d
\u201cNot one tear did he shed for those that he killed,\u201d he said. \u201cUnrepentant. No remorse.\u201d
Richardson noted Roof only expressed sorrow that he put his parents through an emotional trial during which his mother suffered a heart attack after a survivor\u2019s gripping testimony.
\u201cHe had sorrow for them. He had pity for himself. That he had lost his freedom. His ability to watch movies and drive a car,\u201d he said.
\u201cBut his sadness was reserved for the little white children that have to live with African Americans.\u201d
During the first phase of the trial, Roof exhibited no signs of remorse as survivors recounted the rampage in heart-rending detail.
A video of Roof\u2019s chilling confession was shown to the jury.
\u201cSomebody had to do something because black people are killing white people every day,\u201d Roof said without emotion to the FBI special agent questioning him. \u201cThey rape 100 white people a day.\u201d
In notes confiscated from Roof in prison in August 2015, he wrote that he was \u201cnot sorry.\u201d
\u201cI have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed,\u201d the notes said.
Roof\u2019s lawyers had suggested their client was not mentally fit, but Gergel found Roof competent to stand trial \u2014 twice.
His family said in a statement posted in US media Tuesday that they would \u201ccontinue to pray for the Emanuel AME families and the Charleston community.\u201d
\u201cWe will struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people,\u201d the statement said.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who is herself black, said in a statement that \u201cwe hope that the completion of the prosecution provides the people of Charleston \u2014 and the people of our nation \u2014 with a measure of closure.\u201d
Tim Scott, one of South Carolina\u2019s two senators, added that \u201cnineteen months ago, a heartless murderer attempted to start a race war.\u201d
\u201cToday that man was rightly sentenced to death,\u201d said Scott, who is black.
Capital punishment is only rarely meted out in federal cases, in part because violent crimes more typically are tried under state laws.
Federal authorities have executed only three inmates since 1976.
Roof is also facing state murder charges in South Carolina, and prosecutors were planning to seek the death penalty, but those proceedings were indefinitely put on hold last week.<\/p>\n

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