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Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

Fort Lauderdale shooter faces death penalty but actual execution is unlikely

Esteban Santiago Federal death penalty cases are exceedingly rare, but prosecutors are already exploring the possibility of seeking executio...

2:00 AM

Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh3psWBGxf_X3jCVwYgHygOppsW40fkXziegQ3NdryI-vZNTlsWaX1y79Nc_CBuKGABtVuz367DjTLAZqSqVcQORAkcPulfaw89a9i7ijdu6ZnZDT-4T6BN1gFyQ-2qmwIDOlm1BLxSpw/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table>CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a brazenly racial assault almost 19 months ago, shocking the world over the persistence of extremist hatred in dark corners of the American South, was condemned to death by a federal jury on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury of nine whites and three blacks, who last month <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/dylann-roof-trial.html" target="_blank">found Mr. Roof</a> guilty of 33 counts for the attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, S.C., returned their unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberations in the penalty phase of a heart-rending and often legally confounding trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The guilt of Mr. Roof, who <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/dylann-roof-shooting-charleston-south-carolina-church-video.html" target="_blank">coolly confessed</a> to the killings and then <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/no-regrets-from-dylann-roof-in-jailhouse-manifesto.html" target="_blank">justified them without remorse</a> in a jailhouse manifesto, was never in serious doubt during the first phase of the proceedings in Federal District Court in December. By the time the jurors began their deliberations on his sentence, it seemed inevitable that they would lean toward death, not only because of the heinous nature of the crimes but because Mr. Roof, 22, insisted on denying any psychological incapacity, called no witnesses, presented no evidence in his defense and mostly sidelined his court-appointed lawyers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof, who showed no emotion as the verdict was read, will be formally sentenced on Wednesday. The decision effectively capped Mr. Roof’s first trial for the killings on June 17, 2015, the Wednesday when, after six scouting visits to Charleston, he showed up in Emanuel’s fellowship hall and was offered a seat for Bible study by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/us/clementa-pinckney-felt-called-to-spiritual-and-political-service.html" target="_blank">the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney</a>. Mr. Roof sat quietly, his head hung low, for about 45 minutes while the group considered the meaning of the Gospel of Mark’s account of the Parable of the Sower.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, with the parishioners’ eyes clenched for a benediction, Mr. Roof brandished the .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun he had smuggled into the church in a waist pouch. First taking aim at Mr. Pinckney, who was a state senator and the youngest African-American ever elected to South Carolina’s Legislature, he began to fire seven magazines of hollow-point rounds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reverberation of gunfire and clinking of skittering shell casings subsided only after more than 70 shots. Each victim was hit repeatedly, with the eldest, Susie Jackson, an 87-year-old grandmother and church matriarch, struck at least 10 times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the brief siege, the youngest victim, Tywanza Sanders, 26, pleaded with Mr. Roof not to kill. “You blacks are killing white people on the streets everyday and raping white women everyday,” Mr. Roof said during the rampage, according to a jailhouse manifesto he wrote after his arrest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before leaving shortly after 9 p.m., Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">told one of three survivors</a>, Polly Sheppard, that he was sparing her so she could “tell the story.” He stepped over one minister’s bleeding body on his way out the side door, Glock pistol at his side. The killer expected to find officers waiting for him, and had saved ammunition to take his own life, Mr. Roof said in his confession to two F.B.I. agents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the police, alerted by 911 calls from Ms. Sheppard and Mr. Pinckney’s wife, Jennifer, who was hiding with their 6-year-old daughter under a desk in the pastor’s study, had not yet arrived. Mr. Roof got into his black Hyundai Elantra and drove north through the night on country roads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Officers in Shelby, N.C., detained Mr. Roof the next morning after a florist on her way to work spotted his car, which had been depicted in nationally broadcast alerts based on images from the church’s security cameras. Mr. Roof offered no resistance, admitted that he had been involved in the shootings and directed the officers to the murder weapon under a pillow on the back seat.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to Ms. Jackson, Mr. Pinckney and Mr. Sanders, six other people were killed: Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were familiar, frequent presences at the church known as Mother Emanuel, the oldest A.M.E. congregation in the Deep South and one with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-killings-evoke-history-of-violence-against-black-churches.html" target="_blank">a storied history</a> of resistance to slavery and civil rights advocacy over nearly 200 years. In 10 days of testimony, their names and photographs appeared again and again. Family members filled the reserved seats on the right side of the courtroom each day, and 23 relatives and friends delivered emotional testimonials to their character and the impact of their loss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ms. Hurd, a librarian, had adopted a simple motto for her life: “Be kinder than necessary.” Ms. Lance was a perfume aficionado with a gentle smile that unified her family. Ms. Middleton Doctor’s first sermon had been titled “The Virtuous Woman.” Mr. Simmons, a veteran of the Vietnam War, had been among the first blacks in South Carolina hired to drive a Greyhound bus. Ms. Coleman-Singleton was a beaming mother whose ebullient preaching made her a popular figure in Charleston’s churches. Ms. Thompson was a workhorse of Emanuel who had chaired its trustee board. Mr. Sanders, whose parents found hundreds of poems in his bedroom, aspired to become an entertainment lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“That night, they were getting basic instructions before leaving earth,” Felicia Sanders, Mr. Sanders’s mother and a survivor of the attack, testified.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury found Mr. Roof guilty in December of hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. Eighteen of the 33 counts carried a potential death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Mr. Roof declined to testify or present any evidence, his trial was unusual for the jury’s ability to hear from an accused mass murderer in his own unapologetic words. They watched video of his two-hour confession to the F.B.I., and heard readings of his online manifesto, a journal found in his car, suicide letters to his parents, and a jailhouse essay written within seven weeks after his arrest.</div><br />The trial became a duel of competing narratives on the slightly-built, ninth-grade dropout from the Columbia area. In the prosecution’s depiction, Mr. Roof was the personification of evil, a racist ideologue, radicalized on the internet, who plotted an intensely premeditated assault over more than six months, waiting only until he was 21 and old enough to buy a weapon.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">He downloaded a history of the Ku Klux Klan 10 months before the attack, used the online handle LilAryan to communicate with like-minded white nationalists, created the website <a href="http://www.lastrhodesian.com/" target="_blank">www.lastrhodesian.com</a> to post a deliberative screed against blacks, Hispanics and Jews, and audaciously adorned his canvas prison shoes with supremacist symbols, even wearing them to court. He proudly embraced his mission to incite a race war, and admired himself in his writings for having the courage to carry out actions that less-committed racists only prophesied.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Sometimes sitting in my cell,” Mr. Roof wrote while in jail, “I think about how nice it would be to watch a movie or eat some good food or drive my car somewhere, but then I remember how I felt when I did these things, and how I knew I had to do something. And then I realize it was worth it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in the portrayal suggested by defense lawyers, Mr. Roof was a deeply disturbed delusionist who most demonstrated his incapacity by denying it. Indeed, Mr. Roof <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/01/us/dylann-roof-execution-defense-charleston-church-shooting.html" target="_blank">insisted on representing himself</a> during the sentencing phase for the purpose of preventing his experienced capital defender, David I. Bruck, from introducing potentially mitigating evidence about his family, educational background or mental health. Mr. Roof sat impassively at the defense table, almost every minute of every day, showing no interest or expression even when his own words were read aloud.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The results of at least two psychiatric evaluations have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/dylann-roof-charleston-church-killer-is-deemed-competent-for-sentencing.html" target="_blank">kept under seal</a> by Judge Richard M. Gergel, who ruled Mr. Roof competent to stand trial and to represent himself. Jurors heard little of Mr. Roof’s family, which arrived in Lexington County from Germany in the first half of the 18th century and included Lutheran ministers, Confederate soldiers, slaveholders and two county sheriffs, according to a family genealogy.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">His paternal grandfather is a well-regarded lawyer and his father a construction contractor. Mr. Roof was born in 1994 to parents who had already divorced but had briefly reconciled. Mr. Roof began his online treatise by absolving them of any responsibility for his beliefs: “I was not raised in a racist home or environment.” Experts on white supremacists said Mr. Roof was younger than most who resort to violence, and stands apart for his lack of contact with organized groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Carol S. Steiker, a Harvard law professor who has written extensively about the death penalty, said that the two narratives about Mr. Roof were not necessarily inconsistent, and that a concealed psychological defect could have left Mr. Roof susceptible to a disconnected worldview. “It’s pretty hard to tell the difference between bad and mad, between evil and crazy,” she said, “and that’s why we need the investigation needed to present a mitigating case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof’s rampage staggered this area, which was already reeling from the April 2015 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html" target="_blank">shooting death</a> of an unarmed black man, Walter L. Scott, by Michael T. Slager, a white police officer in North Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But two days after the church shootings, with Mr. Roof standing expressionless in the Charleston County jail, five relatives of the victims publicly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/charleston-shooting-dylann-storm-roof.html" target="_blank">offered him forgiveness</a> during an extraordinary bond hearing. The following week, President Obama argued in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/thousands-gather-for-funeral-of-clementa-pinckney-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">a soaring eulogy for Mr. Pinckney</a>, which culminated in an a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace,” that the attack’s lessons offered a way forward for race relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, South Carolina lawmakers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/south-carolina-confederate-flag.html">voted to remove</a> the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia, where it had flown for more than a half-century and enjoyed decades of political protection.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Justice Department <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/us/dylann-roof-will-face-federal-death-penalty-in-charleston-church-killings.html" target="_blank">announced last May</a> that its prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Mr. Roof, in part because of what officials described as his “substantial planning and premeditation” and his “hatred and contempt” toward black people. Although federal capital prosecutions are complex and expensive, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/death-penalty-dylann-roof-charleston.html" target="_blank">the government rejected</a> Mr. Roof’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal law classifies the jury’s decision as a binding “recommendation,” and Mr. Roof will be sentenced formally at a later hearing, when survivors of the attack and relatives of the victims may testify without constraints in the trial intended to preserve his due process rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the verdict confers no certainty about whether Mr. Roof will ever be put to death at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. His case could spur years of appeals — the courts could well consider his mental competency and even the tearful tenor of the sentencing phase — and the scarcity of lethal injection drugs could hinder his execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The federal government has not killed one of its prisoners since 2003. Mr. Roof also faces a separate capital prosecution for murder in South Carolina, where no inmate has been put to death in more than five years. The state trial, initially set for Jan. 17, has been indefinitely postponed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That it at times seemed more important to Mr. Roof to not be depicted as mentally ill than to avoid execution prompted some in the courtroom to question whether he simply preferred to die than to serve a long life in prison. His writings and confession offered evidence on both sides of that question, wavering between glimmers of hope — even that he might someday be pardoned — and an attraction to the prospects of martyrdom. But his commitment to his cause — the restoration of white power through violent subjugation — never publicly flagged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have shed a tear of self pity for myself,” he wrote in 2015. “I feel pity that I had to do what I did in the first place. I feel pity that I had to give up my life because of a situation that should never have existed.”</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, Alan Blinder, Kevin Sack, January 10, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre

Dylann Roof CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, the impenitent and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers...

2:17 PM

Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

Dylann Roof Calls No Witness, Offers No Evidence in Death Penalty Hearings

Dylann Roof Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should b...

2:20 AM

Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s1600/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBbSnJE-yVBbX_IvAuBwVFfxjNZnhmPjOQjOq0ainJiAP8tZPNOz32mW-fSag5y08BeEK-20nAmZZ6-twEvXT8gLtk4svT_HonXBDLpgXtuOI-Q_fScfbbXqvIdRsXzf6pp6v6i6zVBA/s320/Esteban+Ruiz+Santiago+FA_USA.jpg" title="Esteban Ruiz Santiago" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esteban Ruiz Santiago</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale to carry it out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is still unclear why South Florida was targeted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors filed court documents Saturday detailing airport violence, gun and murder allegations against Santiago. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison, they said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Santiago fired approximately 10 to 15 rounds of ammunition from his firearm, aiming at his victims' heads. He was described as walking while shooting in a methodical manner," FBI Agent Michael Ferlazzo wrote in court records.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five people died and six more suffered gunshot injuries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At one point, he exited the Terminal 2 baggage area [and went] onto the sidewalk and then re-entered, still carrying the handgun," agents wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moments later, a Broward County sheriff's deputy approached Santiago, who "dropped the handgun on the ground, in lock-back [mode], meaning that all the ammunition had been fired, and [he] dropped to the floor," investigators wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They say Santiago told them he checked baggage that contained a Walther 9mm semiautomatic handgun and two magazines of ammunition. After claiming his baggage, he said he took it into a stall in the men's restroom, removed the gun, loaded it and put it in his waistband, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He then left the men's restroom and shot the first people he encountered," agents wrote. "Santiago emptied his first magazine, then reloaded and shot until the second magazine, too, was out of bullets. He believes he shot approximately 15 rounds before his arrest."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shootings were apparently recorded by security video, which agents said corroborated Santiago's confession and witnesses' statements.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago, 26, of Anchorage, is due to make his first appearance at 11 a.m. Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale. But after interviewing Santiago for hours, investigators said they had no clear answer to the question: Why did he come to Fort Lauderdale?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The early indication is that there was no specific reason why he chose Fort Lauderdale International Airport," said George L. Piro, the special agent in charge of the FBI in South Florida.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Indications are he came here to carry out this horrific attack. We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack, but again it's very early in the investigation," Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It could be several days, or weeks, before formal charges are filed. Prosecutors will most likely seek an indictment by presenting their evidence to a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the initial hearing Monday in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle will explain the allegations to Santiago. She will probably also appoint the Federal Public Defender's Office to represent Santiago, if he does not hire a private attorney.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though state prosecutors in Florida frequently seek the death penalty, it is uncommon for federal prosecutors to pursue it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal judges and jurors in Florida have only sentenced two men to federal death row since Congress reinstated the death penalty in 1988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State prosecutors in Broward County could seek to file murder charges against Santiago separately because the shooting deaths occurred there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Broward State Attorney's Office is cooperating with federal prosecutors, and no decision on that has yet been made, a spokesman said Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal authorities say they are still investigating the motive for the attack and have not yet ruled out terrorism. They say Santiago was acting alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Iraqi war veteran, Santiago sought out the FBI in Anchorage in November and was hospitalized for mental health treatment after what agents said was “erratic behavior," authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anchorage police and the FBI confirmed Saturday that Santiago went to the FBI office in Anchorage seeking help Nov. 7. He was hospitalized for a mental health evaluation and a firearm he had left in his vehicle outside the office was temporarily taken from him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gun, which investigators said may or may not be the one used in the mass shooting at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, was returned to him by law enforcement on Dec. 8.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite reportedly being disturbed and delusional and having had incidents of reported domestic violence, Santiago was not on the government list of people prohibited from flying that was set up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"During our initial investigation we found no ties to terrorism," said Marlin Ritzman, the agent in charge of the FBI's office in Anchorage. "He broke no laws when he came into our office making comments about mind control."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI contacted the Anchorage Police Department, which transported Santiago to a mental health facility. The department took his weapon and "logged it into evidence for safekeeping," Police Chief Christopher Tolley said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mr. Santiago had arrived at the FBI building asking for help," Tolley said. "Santiago was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being influenced by ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group in the Middle East.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The FBI closed its assessment of Santiago after conducting database reviews and interagency checks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint," Ritzman said. "This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day."　</div><br /><b><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-florida-airport-shooting-20170107-story.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Los Angeles Times, Paula McMahon, Megan O'Matz, Deborah Ramirez, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Florida airport gunman charged, US seeks death penalty</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s1600/another+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAst1MqCI2r6TLhRuerCF8PoT90t8hM3U5_DGXXYCFD3O3UXQ2_NvvZBuQTWJy3YH4XLI9G1J4OPztUpbhb-GcWmB3NxVyi4qJ7yvX2ot8qz_XrWA60IuqPgoGfg5CdubQk3MV5mQSdkE/s400/another+day.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five travelers and wounding six others at a busy international airport in Florida was charged Saturday and could face the death penalty if convicted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Esteban Santiago, 26, told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don't know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago was charged with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death — which carries a maximum punishment of execution — and weapons charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today's charges represent the gravity of the situation and reflect the commitment of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel to continually protect the community and prosecute those who target our residents and visitors," US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities said during a news conference that they had interviewed roughly 175 people, including a lengthy interrogation with the cooperative suspect, a former National Guard soldier from Alaska. Flights had resumed at the Fort Lauderdale airport after the bloodshed, though the terminal where the shooting happened remained closed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago spoke to investigators for several hours after he opened fire with a Walther 9mm semi-automatic handgun that he appears to have legally checked on a flight from Alaska. He had two magazines with him and emptied both of them, firing about 15 rounds, before he was arrested, the complaint said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have not identified any triggers that would have caused this attack. We're pursuing all angles on what prompted him to carry out this horrific attack," FBI Agent George Piro said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Investigators are combing through social media and other information to determine Santiago's motive, and it's too early to say whether terrorism played a role, Piro said. In November, Santiago had walked into an FBI field office in Alaska saying the US government was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was a walk-in complaint. This is something that happens at FBI offices around the country every day," FBI agent Marlin Ritzman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On that day, Santiago had a loaded magazine on him, but had left a gun in his vehicle, along with his newborn child, authorities said. Officers seized the weapon and local officers took him to get a mental health evaluation. His girlfriend picked up the child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Dec. 8, the gun was returned to Santiago. Authorities wouldn't say if it was the same gun used in the airport attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had not been placed on the US no-fly list and appears to have acted alone, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attack sent panicked witnesses running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand. Others hid in bathroom stalls or crouched behind cars or anything else they could find as police and paramedics rushed in to help the wounded and establish whether there were any other gunmen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the course of about 45 seconds, the shooter reloaded twice, he said. When he was out of bullets, he walked away, dropped the gun and lay face down, spread eagle on the floor, Lea said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By that time, a deputy had arrived and grabbed the shooter. Lea put his foot on the gun to secure it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago had been discharged from the National Guard last year after being demoted for unsatisfactory performance. Bryan Santiago said Saturday that his brother had requested psychological help but received little assistance. Esteban Santiago said in August that he was hearing voices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How is it possible that the federal government knows, they hospitalize him for only four days, and then give him his weapon back?" Bryan Santiago said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His mother declined to comment as she stood inside the screen door of the family home in Puerto Rico, wiping tears from her eyes. The only thing she said was that Esteban Santiago had been tremendously affected by seeing a bomb explode next to two of his friends when he was around 18 years old while serving in Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago will make his first court appearance Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag — not a carry-on — and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite his mental evaluation, US Attorney Karen Loeffler said Santiago would have been able to legally possess a gun because he had not been judged mentally ill, which is a high standard.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage — his gun.</div><br />Source: The Associated Press, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Florida airport shooting suspect will face charges that could bring the death penalty

Esteban Ruiz Santiago Investigators say Florida airport shooting suspect Esteban Santiago told them he planned the carnage and purchased a o...

3:15 AM

Dylann Roof Is Complaining About Hearing From Too Many Of His Victims’ Anguished Family Members

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVvbIlsKU3oA1PeutnILJFBfJYXr_p_PHyt-Dp5s-UQ2CxXaFm9YjnRF6d5nvtqsheUAI5qKhRqqAj2UveCWlGMiqKnY5g5pyAVOro3JfFQD8BiIEODBujEFXxb6Jtdg8hmXaeWVDTj8/s1600/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivVvbIlsKU3oA1PeutnILJFBfJYXr_p_PHyt-Dp5s-UQ2CxXaFm9YjnRF6d5nvtqsheUAI5qKhRqqAj2UveCWlGMiqKnY5g5pyAVOro3JfFQD8BiIEODBujEFXxb6Jtdg8hmXaeWVDTj8/s400/Dylann+Roof+SC.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table>CHARLESTON — Dylann Roof, the gunman who massacred nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, complained in court filings Thursday that too many witnesses are testifying about the anguish and horror the victims and their families during and after the shooting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The motion where Roof objects to what’s known as victim impact testimony comes on the second day of the sentencing phase of his trial. Last month, he was convicted on 33 charges and now the jury will decide if he receives the death penalty or life in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors said they have prepared as many as 38 witnesses to deliver testimony to illustrate “the void” felt in these victims’ families in the wake of the tragedy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof is continuing to act as his own attorney. But in a contentious courtroom exchange that happened Thursday during the jury’s morning break, David Bruck, Roof’s stand-by counsel, spoke on his client’s behalf calling the proceeding “a runaway freight train.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bruck revealed to Judge Gergel that he and his colleagues, not Roof, had drafted the motion to limit victim testimony on his behalf. And Bruck implored the judge to allow him to be able to object on Roof’s behalf — Gergel denied the request.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have to be heard on his behalf because he cannot do it,” Bruck begged the judge. “This man cannot protect his own rights. He cannot do it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hoping to persuade the judge, Bruck added, “This is his sentencing not a memorial service.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutor Jay Richardson said that he doesn’t believe that the government will call all 38 witnesses on their list, but added that Roof “is the one who chose to kill nine people…particularly good people!”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Roof’s motion regarding victim impact, Gergel told Roof he “appreciates” the issues he raised about the amount of victim impact testimony and said he is “monitoring this.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the first day, the government was only able to call its first four witnesses due to the length of each person’s time on the stand.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The testimony, for example, included Emanuel AME pastor Sen. Clementa Pinckney’s widow Jennifer recounting how her and her daughter hid in the church that night to survive the shooting. Witnesses have also detailed heartwarming tributes to their fallen loved ones.<br /><br />Roof’s motion cited several well-known capital trials in an attempt to sway the court that the amount of victim impact testimony is excessive.<br /><br />He said that at the trial of Oklahoma city bomber Timothy McVeigh, there were 38 victim impact witnesses — the same number as Roof’s trial — despite the fact that in that incident there were 168 people who were killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/dylann-roof-witness-impact-motion" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: BuzzFeed News, Mike Hayes, January 5, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Dylann Roof cold to victims, but apologized to his parents</h2><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8PAe9MYFvc5EpAKb6pzu8W_Adcn-uwkwuiRIutvUjwQZzZwjYAcFEIRy23404pDhfx0X9LZNy7JTeCYWcnPA6r8daZcF1sbGXty_jhAThUySrmSBkbH4ZiHb28yVRwSKmifE16L9cic/s1600/Dylann+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8PAe9MYFvc5EpAKb6pzu8W_Adcn-uwkwuiRIutvUjwQZzZwjYAcFEIRy23404pDhfx0X9LZNy7JTeCYWcnPA6r8daZcF1sbGXty_jhAThUySrmSBkbH4ZiHb28yVRwSKmifE16L9cic/s400/Dylann+Roof.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">COLUMBIA, S.C. — Before Dylann Roof was arrested for killing nine black church members, he scribbled a note to his mother, apologizing for all the repercussions his actions would cause. Weeks later, in a jailhouse journal, he wrote that he had no regrets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The evidence, along with his manifesto, hundreds of photos and a confession to the FBI, draw a portrait of a young white man consumed by racial hatred who carefully planned the killings, picking out meek, innocent black people who likely wouldn’t fight back.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jurors who convicted Roof of hate crimes and other charges will decide whether he should be executed or face life in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">ROOF AND RACISM</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof has pointed out that there was no dramatic confrontation that led him to begin hating blacks. Instead, when the Trayvon Martin case made the news, Roof went to Wikipedia to read about the black teenager who was shot to death in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was acquitted. That led Roof to research black on white crime and to websites that offer false statistics inflating how often those crimes happen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof was careful in his writings to say his beliefs came just from himself, not his parents. But one of Roof’s old friends suggested otherwise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I don’t think his parents liked his decisions, the choices that he made to have black friends,” said Christon Scriven, who is black.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof would go between partying with black friends and spewing racist diatribes to his white buddies, Scriven said shortly after the shootings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also believed the false claims that blacks were better off as slaves and are inferior at their cores to whites. He compared African-Americans to dogs, saying everyone feels bad when a man beats a dog, but no one is surprised when a dog bites a man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As he sat in jail after his arrest, Roof mused about adopting a white child someday and sought to explain his thoughts on other races, according to a journal found in Roof’s cell.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lauren Knapp of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office read the journal aloud in court Thursday. In it, Roof wrote that he felt he would probably eventually be pardoned if he were sentenced to life in prison and believed Adolf Hitler would eventually be canonized as a saint.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also ranted that Jewish people made America worse by pushing desegregation, that the Hispanic population was growing too quickly and introducing more crime to the nation and Muslims were just as bad as blacks and perhaps more dangerous.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Muslim’s violent behavior is increased exponentially by their sick religion,” Roof wrote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">THE SON</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When authorities searched Roof’s car, they found birthday cards from his mom and dad, who were divorced, and what appeared to be suicide notes to each of his parents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof’s writings to his mom show a son worried about how she would feel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“At this moment I miss you very much,” he wrote. “And as childish as it sounds, I wish I was in your arms.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof’s mom suffered a heart attack in court shortly after prosecutors called him a cold and calculated killer in their opening statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof worked for his contractor father for a time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I love you and I’m sorry,” Roof wrote. “You were a good dad.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Roof’s birthday card, his father promised to buy him a gun.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">THE FRIEND</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVx1vrEcqbmSYukxfjiFkv18cLQBFMIEjtOX6RTVRIHXB6ecVbQMXFXDOwf0CWvH-zVS4QJjwLRzIvzr1IemYKMHamx6mdkH6J6eXopGocs4rf6dyjwUCAM53ogxET8DJ-NkHXfTNAAY/s1600/Dylann+Roof_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dylann Roof" border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtVx1vrEcqbmSYukxfjiFkv18cLQBFMIEjtOX6RTVRIHXB6ecVbQMXFXDOwf0CWvH-zVS4QJjwLRzIvzr1IemYKMHamx6mdkH6J6eXopGocs4rf6dyjwUCAM53ogxET8DJ-NkHXfTNAAY/s400/Dylann+Roof_02.jpg" title="Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof had a few friends he would hang out with when he got tired of his parents. One of them, Joey Meek, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about what he knew about Roof’s plans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meek is awaiting sentencing. His guilty plea included an offer to testify against his friend if asked, but he hasn’t been called to the stand.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meek and Roof were good friends until Roof dropped out of high school. They reconnected in the months before the shooting, drinking and smoking marijuana. Scriven also would hang out with them at Meek’s house.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both friends said he talked about a mass shooting. Scriven said Roof wanted to target the College of Charleston, which Roof denied in his jailhouse journal. Meek said Roof talked about killing blacks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meek insisted to reporters he had no idea of Roof’s exact plan and was stunned to see his friend in a surveillance photo on TV the morning after the shooting. “I didn’t THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him,” Meek said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">THE LONER</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Roof’s opening statement to jurors to start the penalty phase of his trial, he said there was nothing wrong with him psychologically except “I’m probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who’s ever existed.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Agents recovered hundreds of photos from Roof’s cameras. Some were of him posing with the Confederate flag, others were at historic sites across South Carolina. They appeared to be taken with a tripod and a timer, and he is the only person in almost all of them. There are even a few of Roof with a cat in his bedroom.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof wrote in his jailhouse journal that he enjoyed being sad and having pity on himself because sadness was such a strong emotion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof told agents when he confessed he reached out to no other white supremacy groups and spoke to no one else about his plans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His journal ends with another lament: “One of my only regrets is that I was never able to fall in love.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dylann-roof-cold-to-victims-but-apologized-to-his-parents/2017/01/06/ff2c0a5c-d3ed-11e6-9651-54a0154cf5b3_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, Associated Press, Jeffrey Collins , January 6, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Dylann Roof Is Complaining About Hearing From Too Many Of His Victims’ Anguished Family Members

Dylann Roof CHARLESTON — Dylann Roof, the gunman who massacred nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, complained in court...

3:50 PM

Dylann Roof, addressing court, offers no apology for Charleston massacre

Dylann Roof, addressing court, offers no apology for Charleston massacre

'I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did': Dylann Roof Sometime in the six weeks after he killed nine Bible...

3:24 PM

Charleston: Dylann Roof found competent for sentencing, gets extra prep day

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s1600/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015" border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NZCSq4lXb_NYaBYjvpVhEha5CToypPJ1XbaLTbpmjEIUxuf5xKX3CXYWQAak5f82IkJdeSRwCoWJtQGM49QXbEtdx29NIOwQ4E3aOkQsH1FLyydBCKt02VQkmkHzMC-QIJjtgfEhNwE/s400/Police+tape+surrounds+the+parking+lot+behind+the+AME+Emanuel+Church.+Dylann+Roof+SOUTH+CAROLINA.jpg" title="The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — After a judge ruled Monday that Dylann Roof is competent to represent himself, the same jury that last month unanimously found him guilty in the slayings of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church will return to court to begin contemplating his punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the 22-year-old representing himself, the process is sure to be unconventional. But even if Roof is sentenced to death, it's highly unlikely he'd be executed anytime soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While prosecutors plan to call up to 38 people related to the nine people killed and three who survived the June 2015 slaughter during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, Roof said last week he plans on calling no witnesses and presenting no evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof was found guilty last month on 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion. A jury took less than three hours to return its verdict, and a judge dismissed the jury for a break over the holidays. That same jury returns to court Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Typically in what's known as the sentencing phase, defense attorneys call relatives and other witnesses to testify about their client's unsteady state of mind before and during the crimes. Given that background, the defense hopes, a jury might be more likely to spare the defendant's life and opt against the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Roof, who is acting as his own attorney, has said he plans to do no such thing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his journal, which was read in court during his trial, Roof said his doesn't believe in psychology, which he called "a Jewish invention" that "does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they don't."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also seems determined to try to keep evidence embarrassing to him or his family out. Not only did he take over his own defense, but he asked the judge at a hearing last week if he could file a motion limiting what prosecutors can introduce.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also was adamant that a transcript of a hearing where he was found mentally competent not be released to the public.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I know this is not a legal argument, but the unsealing of the competency hearing defeats the purpose of me representing myself," Roof said at last week's hearing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neither Roof, nor U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel nor prosecutors have given specifics on the evidence Roof is objecting to.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, Gergel ordered another competency evaluation of Roof "in an abundance of caution," after his standby counsel filed a sealed motion again questioning Roof's mental ability to proceed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, over the objection of an attorney representing media outlets including The Associated Press, Gergel ordered the competency hearing to be closed to the public. Saying he'd have to sequester jurors if he opened up the proceedings, the judge promised to release a transcript after Roof is sentenced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is an incredibly sensitive moment in this proceeding," Gergel said. "We are putting in the hands of 12 people the life and death of a person."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a daylong hearing, Gergel ultimately ruled Roof is competent to stand trial and also to represent himself at sentencing. He also granted Roof's request for an extra day to prepare for his case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof's lawyers tried repeatedly both to stop him from being his own lawyer and to work mental health-related evidence into the first phase of his trial, saying they feared Roof fired them because he feared the attorneys would present evidence that would embarrass him when trying to save his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors objected at every turn, and Gergel wouldn't allow any of it into court, ruling mitigation evidence is allowable during sentencing and not before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Court papers show prosecutors are expected to present evidence showing Roof picked his victims because of their race, killed them to incite more violence, showed no remorse and killed three particularly vulnerable people who were 70 years old or older.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIABGaIvjeT0isEb4lusmgWPGMl01944pG9n_ImBB_ZDnkJqAjYj2o34MjaMGcdv_47oc4I1kKA_SPVHi9I03FjKWztPZusmET_VZPssRHF_mjTA1bwHS_hohuP_qsvXEIK5q2kwcepZE/s1600/Dylann+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIABGaIvjeT0isEb4lusmgWPGMl01944pG9n_ImBB_ZDnkJqAjYj2o34MjaMGcdv_47oc4I1kKA_SPVHi9I03FjKWztPZusmET_VZPssRHF_mjTA1bwHS_hohuP_qsvXEIK5q2kwcepZE/s400/Dylann+Roof.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Dylann Roof case is a classic example of the type of problem you can have<br />when an obviously mentally ill or emotionally disturbed defendant is permitted<br />to represent himself," says Robert Dunham, Death Penalty Information Center. </td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Evidence speaking to Roof's mental state, one expert argues, could make the difference between life and death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Dylann Roof case is a classic example of the type of problem you can have when an obviously mentally ill or emotionally disturbed defendant is permitted to represent himself," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "There's a huge difference in the eyes of a jury between someone they perceive as evil or despicable and someone they perceive as being seriously mentally ill. ... If you take mental health out of it, you are putting a thumb on the scale of death."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both the judge's decision to allow Roof to represent himself and waive the introduction of mental health evidence are sure to be raised in an inevitable appeal, Dunham argued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof also faces nine murder charges in state court, where prosecutors have also said they will seek the death penalty in a trial likely to begin sometime next year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whether he's sentenced to death or not, it's unlikely Roof would be executed anytime soon, in either jurisdiction. The federal government hasn't executed anyone since 2003, and there are years of appeals between a death sentence being levied and carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Carolina's death chamber hasn't been used since 2011, due at least in part to a lack of availability for the drugs the state uses for lethal injection.</div><br />Source: Associated Press, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Dylann Roof barred from approaching jury and witnesses during sentencing</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A judge has issued an order limiting Dylann Roof’s movement within the federal courtroom where he will be acting as his own lawyer during sentencing.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US district judge Richard Gergel on Monday ruled that Roof cannot approach witnesses or the jury during court, set to get under way on Tuesday. He will also be sitting in a chair furthest from the jury and victims’ family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same jury that last month unanimously found Roof guilty of the slayings of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church is returning to court to begin contemplating his punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 22-year-old is representing himself, and the process is likely to be unconventional. Roof could be sentenced to death, but it is highly unlikely he would be executed any time soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof’s lawyers tried repeatedly both to stop him from being his own lawyer and to work mental health-related evidence into the first phase of his trial, saying they feared Roof fired them because he feared the attorneys would present evidence that would embarrass him when trying to save his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors objected at every turn, and Gergel would not allow any of it into court, ruling that mitigation evidence was allowable during sentencing and not before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Court papers show prosecutors are expected to present evidence showing that Roof picked his victims because of their race, killed them to incite more violence, showed no remorse, and killed three particularly vulnerable people who were 70 years old or older.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Evidence speaking to Roof’s mental state, one expert argues, could make the difference between life and death.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/02/dylann-roof-sentencing-charleston-shooting-death-penalty" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, January 2, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Charleston: Dylann Roof found competent for sentencing, gets extra prep day

The AME Emanuel Church in Charleston where 9 were killed in June 2015 CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — After a judge ruled Monday that Dylann Roof is...

3:09 AM

With Dylann Roof as his own lawyer, death-penalty phase begins in church slayings

With Dylann Roof as his own lawyer, death-penalty phase begins in church slayings

Dylann Roof CHARLESTON, S.C. — The same jury that last month unanimously found Dylann Roof guilty in the slayings of nine black parishioners...

9:50 AM

Dylann Roof Himself Rejects Best Defense Against Execution

Dylann Roof Himself Rejects Best Defense Against Execution

An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof Twenty-two pages into the hand-scribbled journal found in Dylann S. Roof’s car — after t...

3:07 AM

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