Posted 6:51 p.m. today
Updated 7:07 p.m. today
By MEG KINNARD and JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S. C. \u2014 An unrepentant Dylann Roof was sentenced to death Tuesday for fatally shooting nine black church members during a Bible study session, becoming the first person ordered 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, \u00ab\u00a0I still feel like I had to do it. \u00a0\u00bb
The slain included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church pastor and a state senator, as well as other pillars of the community: 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 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.
\u00ab\u00a0I have the right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good it would do anyway,\u00a0\u00bb 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.
\u00ab\u00a0There is no room in America’s smallest jail cell for hatred, racism and discrimination,\u00a0\u00bb he said from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. \u00ab\u00a0The journey for me and my family today has come to an end. \u00a0\u00bb
One of Hurd’s other brothers, Melvin Graham, said the jury’s decision \u00ab\u00a0was a very hollow victory\u00a0\u00bb because his sister is still gone.
\u00ab\u00a0He decided the day, the hour and minute my sister was going to die. Now someone is going to do it for him,\u00a0\u00bb he said.
Roof specifically selected Emanuel AME Church, the South’s oldest black church, to carry out the cold, calculated slaughter, Assistant U. S. Attorney Jay Richardson said.
The 12 people he targeted opened the door for a stranger with a smile, he said. Three people survived the attack.
\u00ab\u00a0They welcomed a 13th person that night … with a kind word, a Bible, a handout and a chair,\u00a0\u00bb Richardson said during his closing argument. \u00ab\u00a0He had come with a hateful heart and a Glock.45. \u00a0\u00bb
The gunman sat with the Bible study group for about 45 minutes. During the final prayer \u2014 when everyone’s eyes were closed \u2014 he started firing. He stood over some of the fallen victims, shooting them again as they lay on the floor, Richardson said.
The prosecutor reminded jurors about each one of the victims and the bloody scene that Roof left in the church’s lower level.
Nearly two dozen friends and relatives of the victims testified during the sentencing phase of the trial. They shared cherished memories and talked about a future without a mother, father, sister or brother. They shed tears, and their voices shook, but none of them said whether Roof should face the death penalty.
The prosecutor reminded jurors that Clementa Pinckney would be remembered for singing goofy songs and watching cartoons with his young daughters. In a sign of perhaps how important that testimony was, jurors re-watched a speech by Pinckney in which he talked about the history of Emanuel and its mission.
The jury convicted Roof last month of all 33 federal charges he faced, including hate crimes. He never explained his actions to jurors, saying only that \u00ab\u00a0anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for it. \u00a0\u00bb
Roof insisted that he was not mentally ill and did not call any witnesses or present any evidence.
In one of his journals, he wrote that he did not believe in psychology, calling it \u00ab\u00a0a Jewish invention\u00a0\u00bb that \u00ab\u00a0does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they don’t. \u00a0\u00bb
His attorneys said he did not want to present any evidence that might embarrass him or his family.
After he was sentenced, Roof asked a judge to appoint him new attorneys, but the judge said he was not inclined to do so because they had performed \u00ab\u00a0admirably. \u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0We are sorry that, despite our best efforts, the legal proceedings have shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy,\u00a0\u00bb the attorneys said in a veiled reference to the mental health issues they wanted to present.
A judge will formally sentence him during a hearing Wednesday. Roof also faces a death penalty trial in state court.
The last person sent to federal death row was Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 2015.
___
Associated Press Writer Alex Sanz contributed to this report.
___
Kinnard can be reached at http:\/\/twitter.com\/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/content\/meg-kinnard\/ .
Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/JSCollinsAP. His work can be found at http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/content\/jeffrey-collins .<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 22\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -91.1<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n