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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