Another Day in Paradise

<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/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Artist Ben Quilty co-curated an exhibition of works by Bali-9 member Myuran Sukumaran. It's a bittersweet elegy to the redemptive magic of art.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brushstrokes are declarations. Myuran Sukumaran’s swirls of paint, gingerly daubed onto canvas then layered heavily and deliberately are the markings of a man declaring his faith in the life-giving power of art – even as the prospect of death was closing in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When I first met Myuran, he was very humble, quite shy but had a fierce fire and thirst for knowledge about painting,” smiles Ben Quilty, who alongside Michael Dagostino, is the co-curator of <i>Another Day in Paradise</i>. The exhibition brings 100 paintings by Sukumaran, who was executed in April last year with fellow Bali Nine member Andrew Chan, to Sydney for the first time. “He wanted to learn, he wanted to do it. Although the Australian media fed us the message that he was this violent, aggressive enforcer, I met a big, quiet, strong person who was protecting huge swathes of people in that prison. Everyone really respected him. He’d become an extraordinary man.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, the galleries inside the Campbelltown Arts Centre, a short drive from Sukumaran’s old primary school, are dotted with works painted by the fledgling artist while he was incarcerated at Bali’s Kerobokan jail. Along the main wall, a series of self-portraits – one in which his image is doubled, another in which a skull floats above his supine body as a memento mori – are harrowing and powerful, hinting at a search for alternate psychological destinies, even as his external fate was fixed.<br /><br /><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/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s1600/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKgRoeRXsr_OJpP-MEUvM5mt0SBUN3a1bIb_rD25biW0i0yePiweI13rRVqbkXC6WdCPvNXFY-arSQ9Nm2ucqb0pD-5i9cA6jAcjaDA1QNiFgzB-I0RFloxbbZELe44lCsB15HAL81xDE/s400/Myuran+Sukumaran+at+Kerobokan+Prison.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran</td></tr></tbody></table>A body of work entitled <i>The Last 72 Hours</i>, made during his final imprisonment on Nusa Kambangan Island, is harder to take in without blinking back tears. Australian artists Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Megan Cope, Jagath Dheerasekara, Taloi Havini, Matthew Sleeth and Khaled Sabsabi were also invited to respond to Sukumaran’s paintings with pieces that call for empathy as well as the importance of human rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Painting is like learning to write and if you have a lot to say, you need to learn how to use language,” says Quilty, who became close friends with Sukumaran and later, the biggest advocate for his plea for clemency, after he received an email from his Melbourne barrister seeking advice on new painting techniques. “His language was visual and he wanted to learn how to use it, to speak about who he was. He was a quiet man with a big smile but there was a lot going on. He’d studied philosophy and thought through all the different aspects of what had led him to this gruesome predicament. He wanted to be able to talk about it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quilty, who counts a portrait series of Indonesian and Australian politicians among the artist’s most moving pieces, also believes that the lack of public empathy around Chan and Sukuraman is more complex than it first appears.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Part of it is due to the colour of Myuran’s skin,” he says, with a pause. “A lot of the criticism Andrew and Myuran received wouldn’t have been leveled at European inmates. I feel as if he looked the way I did, if he was a sixth-generation Irish-Australian, there would have been a far less brutal response in the Australian public. Painting those politicians was so pivotal for him; he had been painting self-portraits but he wanted to engage with the prime ministers of Australia and the president of Indonesia, who’d become the protagonists of his life and future. I want people think more broadly about compassion in our community. Because there are people here who hated him until the moment he died. I want them to come to this exhibition and respond to his humanity. The suggestion that all men who deal drugs should be executed is brutal, simplistic bullshit that needs to be called out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For Quilty, whose own artistic trajectory has sought the darker corners of what it means to be a young man in Australia, it’s Sukumaran’s brushstrokes that matter now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Myuran was just on a mission to learn how to harness his visual language and in the last 72 hours you got the sense that he was on fire,” he says. “As an artist, you start to get a sense that through a practice you are leaving a legacy, and if you’re sensitive and passionate and good, that legacy will outlive you. They took his life but he had a voice and that voice will continue reverberating after he’s gone.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Another Day in Paradise</i> shows at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, as part of the <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/entertainment/article/sydney-festival" target="_blank">Sydney Festival</a>, from January 13 to March 26, 2017.</div><br />Source: <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/art-and-design/article/another-day-paradise" target="_blank">Broadsheet</a>, Neha Kale, January 12, 2017<br /><br /><b>➤ Related content:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/art-on-death-row-its-good-evil-vanilla.html" target="_blank">Art on death row: ‘it’s good, evil, vanilla ... all things in what we humans call life’</a>, January 12, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/bali-nine-member-myuran-sukumarans-gut.html" target="_blank">Bali Nine Member Myuran Sukumaran's Gut-Wrenching Exhibition Opens</a>, January 11, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/racism-death-penalty-and-myuran.html" target="_blank">Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran</a>, January 9, 2017</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</li></ul><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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Another Day in Paradise

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's art workshop Artist Ben Quilty co-curated an exhibition of works by Bali-9 member ...

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What's next for Dylann Roof?

<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/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/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="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA17MM5WZ0DDLfvyk-4KHxVH7atKNdN_eWf_l9gDIcK9fpE7B2rI3rNHQrykU_b3IDRgPFdUNxNirprXqtOP8anBmvKm-ocTsAEr-k-ClKp6vZQogJTVdAv1FQUDNKZjKKoxPWqCBbHdw/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><div style="text-align: justify;">Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-is-sentenced-to-death-in.html" target="_blank">after jurors recommended the death penalty</a> for killing nine people in a 2015 massacre at a historically black church in Charleston.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof will become the first federal hate crime defendant to be sentenced to death, a Justice Department spokesman said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US District Judge Richard M. Gergel, who has presided over the trial, will hold the formal sentencing Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof, who <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/11/charleston-shooting-dylann-roof-to.html" target="_blank">had chosen to represent himself during the penalty phase</a>, has told the judge he wants to file a motion for new lawyers. Gergel said Roof can argue that on Wednesday but the judge is not inclined to let that happen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The avowed white supremacist was <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/12/dylann-roof-found-guilty-in-charleston.html" target="_blank">convicted last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges</a>. During the penalty phase, he cast his defense attorneys aside, telling jurors that he chose to represent himself to "prevent my lawyers from misrepresentation."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, he expressed <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no.html" target="_blank">no remorse during his closing argument</a>. Roof reiterated that he had no choice but to kill nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His statement followed the prosecutor's impassioned, two-hour argument. Assistant US Attorney Jay Richardson reminded jurors that Roof sat with the church members for 40 minutes before opening fire. He pulled the trigger "more than 75 times ... reloading seven times" as he stood over his victims, shooting them repeatedly, Richardson said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jurors had the option to recommend life in prison without the possibility of parole, but the 10 women and two men delivered a unanimous vote for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet, the jury's recommendation and the sentencing phase may not mean the end for the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Case could go on for 'very long time'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death penalty cases are notorious for their complexity, often spending years in appeals and processes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A group of defense attorneys and others who worked on Roof's behalf issued a statement, saying the death penalty decision means the case will not be over for a "very long time."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former prosecutor in South Carolina, Holman Gossett said it's possible for Roof could ask for a new trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He didn't have any attorneys helping him in the penalty phase so he may make that motion after reflecting on it," Gossett told CNN affiliate WSPA. "Then it would go through the process of automatic hearings with appellate courts to see if there's any reason under the law that it should not stand legal grounds."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Federal executions rare</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium, three federal inmates have been executed in the United States. There are 63 federal prisoners awaiting execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And Roof's court appearances may be far from over.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is also set to be tried on state murder charges, and prosecutors have said they'll also seek the death penalty in that case.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/11/us/dylann-roof-sentencing/" target="_blank">CNN</a>, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Charleston bishop opposes death sentence for man convicted of killing churchgoers</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img 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" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Jurors unanimously agreed to sentence Dylann Roof to death for killing 9 black churchgoers.</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said in a statement that the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment and reminded people that all life is sacred. "We are all sinners, but through the father's loving mercy and Jesus' redeeming sacrifice upon the cross, we have been offered the gift of eternal life. The Catholic opposition to the death penalty, therefore, is rooted in God's mercy. The church believes the right to life is paramount to every other right as it affords the opportunity for conversion, even of the hardened sinner," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Sentencing Dylann Roof to death conflicts with the church's teaching that all human life is sacred, even for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Instead of pursuing death, we should be extending compassion and forgiveness to Mr. Roof, just as some of the victims' families did at his bond hearing in June 2015," the bishop added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The jury had to reach a unanimous decision to sentence Roof to death. Had they disagreed, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison. He was convicted of 33 federal charges last month, including hate crimes. Roof acted as his own attorney and did not question any witnesses. In his FBI confession, he said he hoped the massacre would bring back segregation or start a race war, the Associated Press reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bishop Guglielmone offered prayers of support for those who were killed and their families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our Catholic faith sustains our solidarity with and support for the victims of the Emanuel AME Church massacre and their relatives. We commit ourselves to walk with these family members as well as the survivors as they continue to heal from the trial and this tragedy," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bishop asked people to continue to pray for the victims, survivors and families connected with the shooting. He also encouraged people to pray for Roof and his family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"May he acknowledge his sins, convert to the Lord and experience his loving mercy," Bishop Guglielmone said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel AME Church, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Sharonda Singleton, the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., the Rev. Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, and Susie Jackson were killed in the shooting.</div><br />Source: catholicregister.org, January 11, 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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What's next for Dylann Roof?

Dylann Roof Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) -- Dylann Roof will be formally sentenced Wednesday after jurors recommended the death penalty ...

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

<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/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/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="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9azbJLd60yG4hgq7cswRtx3-HBMxdlX1PR6-Ka83XQT27seFSkJf6xEw6ipIciI6PSoArV5L0Ln5aEEi0W1vUNtKmhDdMkMW7noaAKGM5hrQ-yDnV7VYOMtsBuXQ04WIvzyOAOLfeHtU/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><div style="text-align: justify;">Federal prosecutors rested their case on Monday that convicted killer and self-proclaimed white supremacist Dylann Roof should be executed for gunning down nine worshipers at a South Carolina church in 2015.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So did Roof, who is representing himself during the penalty phase of his federal trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over four days of testimony, Roof, 22, didn't make much of an argument that he should be spared. He didn't challenge any of the government's witnesses — some 38 victims of the attack on Emanuel AME Church were expected to testify — nor did he call any of his own witnesses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof did, however, seek to limit how many victims government prosecutors could present. (In a motion, he described their testimony as "excessive".) And in his opening statement last Wednesday — his first public statement since the June 17 attack — he explained the highly unusual choice to act as his own lawyer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I chose to represent myself to prevent my lawyers from presenting [my] mental health evaluation," Roof said, adding: "There is nothing wrong with me psychologically."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the government called witness after witness to offer a window into the emotionally raw aftermath of the June 17 attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Denise Quarles, for instance, described in blunt terms how it felt to hear that her mother, Myra Thompson, had been killed at a place that her family had considered a sanctuary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Monday, Roof filed a motion that seeks to prevent government lawyers from using "unfair and constitutional" words and references in its closing argument on Tuesday. Among them are "evil," "hate" and a reference to Hitler from his personal writings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof is also expected to deliver a closing argument, though it is unclear what he will say.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/dylann-roof-calls-no-witness-offers-no-evidence-death-penalty-n704961" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, January 9, 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 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...

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Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

<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/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s1600/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9TmpnfhTDGmO72WvIGIpMddgcZp0TzYaHJdMSKYdTfrYsRUnnvv6gLR0kZD0hoIl4Y96kb5oMEMatSH9cQVj8bkNGPXBJg7E5SrXeg7CKe4tdDZEKZyeWAPTLXudMbi3PlAvR_iKBXU/s400/Australian+artist+Ben+Quilty+teaches+Sukumaran+to+paint+in+Kerobokan+Prison-+Photo+by+Jason+Childs.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop</td></tr></tbody></table>How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white politician pronounces, “We are not a racist country”?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m keenly aware that we are a remarkably tolerant and multicultural society. But we have a deep scar of racism that runs thick through our suburbs. And we all know it. Ask an Indigenous person how their day goes. Think of their ancestors being driven off their own land. Think of the hundreds of recorded Indigenous massacre sites across this country, how only a shameful handful are publicly acknowledged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Raji Sukumaran abandoned her own troubled homeland when her eldest son was a year old. She fled war with her ill husband, from Sri Lanka to London, following a trail of Sri Lankans, all seeking a safer future. London in the ’80s was brutal for the Sukumaran family and within two years Raji was planning to resettle again in Australia. In the last year of her eldest son’s life, I asked him if he’d faced racism as a kid at school in the western suburbs of Sydney. He laughed. Not one day had passed where Myuran Sukumaran did not face racial abuse and physical violence. That realisation was the closest I came to getting a clear insight into the path that led that little boy to his profoundly selfish crime and the final, breathtaking punishment. Never did Myu allow me to talk publicly about his childhood and the barrage of racial abuse that he had become accustomed to as a little boy. Like so many of my friends who’ve faced similar racism as children, they wear it in silence. It’s a part of their history they reconciled themselves to about a decade before they were old enough to vote. As a child, some primordial urge to be happy must allow little people to walk on, head down, through the assault. But the possibility of broken parts of a psyche after such a brutal childhood are, personally, impossible for me to reconcile. And now that my dear friend Myu is dead – executed by the Indonesian state, along with Andrew Chan and six others – it is important for me to air that. He quietly impressed upon me that the decisions he made were his own. He owned them and wanted no excuses offered for his making them. When I began to tweet #boycottbali he phoned me, irritated and anxious, and again asked for me to back off. It was not the Balinese who had made his mistakes. He made his mistakes, he told me. Simple. He blamed no one else for his crimes. Against unimaginable odds, Myu had become a good man.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When faced with the online cruelty of herds of faceless Australian trolls writing about Myu’s fate it was impossible for me not to assume that there was a racial bent to their hatred. At first they seemed so grossly misdirected, until I took into account that thick, ever-present scab of racism. Myu was a brilliantly reformed prisoner. He was honest and loyal, intellectually rigorous, humble and calm. The guards new it; his lawyers knew it; everyone who met Myu knew it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many questioned why I stood up for him. I was one of many, although through necessity I became one of the public faces of a community who had relentlessly fought for Myu and Andrew for almost 10 years, including lawyers, teachers, artists, philosophers, journalists and politicians. Why would we stand up for men who had broken the law in another country?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><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/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s1600/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxCXXP0azXIUceSDXFfW2g3ePe7MY1sUUvt2E1zIY3YsPxHGTxZ1752UffHPjRNW76vCp7TzoJoxTFWhrHtMer3VrgVXu95g7xdLxHtRdajIyTWhw3Tmpc-vjvzVp7_3B76QTw1nW3NQ/s400/Bali+Nine+death+row+inmate+Myuran+Sukumaran+with+his+Archibald+Prize+entry%252C+a+self-portrait.jpg" title="Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myuran Sukumaran stands in front of his prize-winning self-portrait.</td></tr></tbody></table>I am part of a community who is quite ready to stand up for our beliefs. We are ready to calmly call on other countries to seek compassion, strive for forgiveness and fight for human rights. We should call out bullying and racism in our schools and we should also use our most diplomatic voices to call out injustices in every community, on every continent. My beliefs lie in atheism. The beliefs that bound us in our fight for Myu and Andrew are not solely Christian values. They are fundamental to Buddhist and Islamic beliefs, Hindu, Sikh and Judaist. We weren’t declaring war on Indonesia for our beliefs, but we were standing up, using our voices, clearly and calmly – and if that “affects our relationship” with Indonesia, then so be it. As the world, from my studio, appears to be sliding sideways right now, loud clear voices are a fundamental part of the way out of this bloody mess. Voices are never violent and never threatening if those voices are calling for compassion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On January 13, 2017, Myu’s exhibition <b><a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2017/myuran" target="_blank">Another Day in Paradise</a></b> opens at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in Sydney. The arts centre is a short drive from Myu’s primary school and from the high school he attended with Andrew Chan. In prison, Myu was by far the most dedicated student I’ve taught. He was reformed before I met him. Like many of my old mates, Myu was trying to find his place in the world, only he was searching for his calling from inside Kerobokan prison, Denpasar. <br /><br />Next year it will be 50 years since Australia has committed execution. Ronald Ryan was hanged in Pentridge prison on February 3, 1967. Back then opponents of the abolition screamed that without the vicious deterrent of gallows our society would slide backwards into violent anarchy. In 2016, Iran, America, China, Indonesia and North Korea all carried out executions. I’d suggest that we, 50 years later, are more peaceful than all of them. 2017 is a year for all Australians to stand up against brutality, against violence, against racism and against the death penalty. It is for the most compassionate Australians to sway popular opinion in our region. It is an obligation and it is a responsibility. Internationally, in 2017, we will have the moral high ground, the soapbox, and it should be used. Execution is not a deterrent to young wayward men. No punishment is. But reform is real. Myuran Sukumaran proved it. The exhibition of his brilliant paintings is testament to Myu’s world and to the power of a voice that he worked so hard to create.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/12/24/racism-the-death-penalty-and-myuran-sukumaran/14824980004137" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The Saturday Paper, Ben Quilty, December 24, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">➤ <b>Related article:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/mother-of-bali-nine-member-myuran.html" target="_blank">Mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran wants people to remember him through art</a>, January 6, 2017</div><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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Racism, the death penalty and Myuran Sukumaran

Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Ben Quilty in Kerobokan's painting workshop How many times will I have to watch as a privileged, white polit...

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Jury in Dylann Roof death penalty trial expected to start deliberations Tuesday

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlFYfwTy_X7D1S635PGsRn2Fhd6xT2S0kdoXC2BfiWdxWG-vQL4_UDt4DYUgUa7JXbtWbH_lx9Pu-11jx4LBDXL4bJg_-I17wtDZwqCp1XYC5W-eJASxNBSV6fRFv6L5JP4Iq4jDW840/s1600/future+mass+killer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlFYfwTy_X7D1S635PGsRn2Fhd6xT2S0kdoXC2BfiWdxWG-vQL4_UDt4DYUgUa7JXbtWbH_lx9Pu-11jx4LBDXL4bJg_-I17wtDZwqCp1XYC5W-eJASxNBSV6fRFv6L5JP4Iq4jDW840/s400/future+mass+killer.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>CHARLESTON, S.C. — Federal prosecutors are nearing the end of their presentation to convince jurors that Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof deserves to be executed, and the presiding judge said he expects jurors will begin deliberations in the case Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Friday, the third day of the penalty phase in the trial, prosecutors again highlighted Roof’s racist writings, and the impact his crime had on those whose loved ones were killed. FBI Agent Joseph Hamski read aloud some of Roof’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dylann-roof-says-its-not-fair-he-has-to-hear-so-much-from-the-loved-ones-of-his-victims/2017/01/05/e77a2156-d347-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html" target="_blank">rants in a journal found in his jail cell</a> and his online communications, where Roof proclaimed that white women who date black men are “race-traitors” and bemoaned that more people would not take hateful action.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If we were to, for example, become completely ruthless with blacks, or implement a harsh eugenics program, who could stop us?” Roof wrote in his journal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof, 22, was convicted last month of federal hate crimes for his 2015 rampage at Charleston’s historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he fatally shot nine parishioners because they were black. Jurors are now considering whether he should face the death penalty or life in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel said Friday that he will provide proposed jury instructions to prosecutors and Roof over the weekend, and he hopes the case will be in the jury’s hands by Tuesday. Prosecutors had already indicated that they expect to rest their case Monday, and Roof, who is representing himself, has said he will present no evidence. Gergel said he will then send jurors home and bring them back for closing arguments the following day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When jurors’ deliberations begin, they will weigh whether the aggravating factors in the case — Roof’s motivation, his lack of remorse and the impact of his crimes on the victims’ loved ones — outweigh any mitigating evidence, such as Roof’s offer to plead guilty or the possibility that he could change.</div><br /><b><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/deliberations-in-dylann-roof-death-penalty-trial-expected-to-start-tuesday/2017/01/06/1338a482-d412-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: Washington Post, Matt Zapotosky, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><h2><br />With federal case nearing end, judge indefinitely delays Dylann Roof's state trial</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bvH0VA-X8WMkJVrrqtLAUpJya2dLTCwl3xEAx80eddegVVKbmqaJpzzFxMVlOknKOWtutymOkjKpPZwZB7HSclKRcXCMMUovmi_F47j24bj1zJCKMYbPsrY0iFU5_2QkSgMT81s-Dxs/s1600/jury-box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Jury box" border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bvH0VA-X8WMkJVrrqtLAUpJya2dLTCwl3xEAx80eddegVVKbmqaJpzzFxMVlOknKOWtutymOkjKpPZwZB7HSclKRcXCMMUovmi_F47j24bj1zJCKMYbPsrY0iFU5_2QkSgMT81s-Dxs/s320/jury-box.jpg" title="Jury box" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With Dylann Roof's federal death penalty trial nearing an end, a judge on Thursday indefinitely delayed a state proceeding that was scheduled for later this month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State authorities were the first to charge Roof, 22, in the June 17, 2015, racially motivated attack that killed nine black worshipers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. But with that murder case moving toward trial last year, federal prosecutors decided to also pursue the death penalty, and a judge set an earlier date for the hate crimes trial in U.S. District Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was the 1st time both state and federal prosecutors simultaneously pursued a defendant's execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof is now representing himself in the penalty phase of his federal trial. His state case was to be heard Jan. 17, but Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson signed paperwork delaying it "until further order of this court."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicholson noted in the filing the ongoing federal trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson is leading the state's prosecution of Roof on nine counts of murder, three of attempted murder and a firearms charge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She lamented the federal trial's earlier date when it was set last year. At one point, she pointed out the federal government's track record for actually carrying out executions and said the federal proceeding would have "little or no relevance to the defendant's ultimate fate."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it remains unclear how she will proceed with the prosecution after a jury decides Roof's sentence on his 33 federal convictions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have been closely monitoring and in constant consultation with the federal prosecutors who have done an outstanding job," she said Thursday. "Our plans have not changed, but we will continue to re-evaluate as the circumstances dictate."</div><br />Source: postandcourier.com, January 7, 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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Jury in Dylann Roof death penalty trial expected to start deliberations Tuesday

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Federal prosecutors are nearing the end of their presentation to convince jurors that Charleston church shooter Dylann Ro...

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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...

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

<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/AVvXsEg7mQjKoED_F2kvokheyYN6Yynw0dyh-yu5JnZxp4W-A_0AFw4yUsp2OJwLYA4Nqoc4zn3FLEZEUV3eZxXjziBAGXWumHUm-zmqD4wSl0E8psvobUM0Zx-FBysMIIVEEOfusdA_r5Nsfgg/s1600/Dylann+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did: Dylann Roof" border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7mQjKoED_F2kvokheyYN6Yynw0dyh-yu5JnZxp4W-A_0AFw4yUsp2OJwLYA4Nqoc4zn3FLEZEUV3eZxXjziBAGXWumHUm-zmqD4wSl0E8psvobUM0Zx-FBysMIIVEEOfusdA_r5Nsfgg/s400/Dylann+Roof.jpg" title="I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did: Dylann Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did': Dylann Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometime in the six weeks after he killed nine Bible study worshippers at this city’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Dylann S. Roof wrote in a journal that he had “not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.” On Wednesday morning, standing before the jurors who will decide whether he should be put to death, Roof again offered no apology, no explanation and no remorse for the horrific massacre.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a strikingly brief opening statement in the penalty phase of his trial in U.S. District Court, where he is representing himself, Roof repeatedly assured jurors that he was not mentally ill, and left it at that. “There’s nothing wrong with me psychologically,” he said, before striding back to the defense table, taking a deep breath.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By then, Courtroom No. 6 had already been jarred by a reading of two pages from Roof’s journal, a white supremacist manifesto written in Charleston County’s jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did,” Roof wrote in the journal, which officials seized in August 2015 and a prosecutor introduced during his opening statement. “I am not sorry.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Roof, who was then 21, also wrote: “I do feel sorry for the innocent white children forced to live in this sick country and I do feel sorry for the innocent white people that are killed daily at the hands of the lower race. I have shed a tear of self-pity for myself. 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><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As he began to lay out the government’s case for a death sentence, the prosecutor who read from the journal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan S. Williams, told the jury of 10 women and two men that Roof’s killing spree had been a premeditated act that had devastated the families of his victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The defendant didn’t stop after shooting one person or two or four or five; he killed nine people,” Williams said, a few moments before he flatly declared: “The death penalty is justified.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, aided by a slideshow of pictures, he described each of the victims and their lives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The presentations, especially Roof’s comments and the introduction of the journal, struck a startling beginning to the trial’s sentencing phase, which is expected to run into next week. On Dec. 15, after a weeklong first phase, the jury found him guilty of 33 counts, including hate crimes, obstruction of religion resulting in death and firearms charges. Eighteen counts require the jury to decide whether to sentence Roof, now 22, to either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A death sentence requires unanimity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although many people in the courtroom had already heard Roof’s raspy, Southern-inflected monotone during the guilt phase of his trial, when prosecutors played a video recording of his confession, his opening statement on Wednesday was the first time he had directly addressed jurors. He chose to allow his court-appointed legal team to represent him during the guilt phase, but sidelined them to represent himself during the penalty phase in order to prevent them from introducing any mitigating evidence regarding his family background of mental capacity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His decision to spend only three minutes addressing the jury, and to devote the time to insisting that he was not impaired, seemed to solidify the impression of a man unwilling to rely upon what experts believe is his best opportunity to avoid execution: a mental health defense. </div><br /><b><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/dylann-roof-addressing-court-offers-no-apology-or-explanation-for-massacre/article33498538/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The New York Times (via The Globe and Mail), Kevin Sack, Alan Blinder, January 4, 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, 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...

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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? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

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...

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

<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><div style="text-align: justify;">CHARLESTON, S.C. — The same jury that last month unanimously found Dylann Roof guilty in 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;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2017/01/dylann-roof-himself-rejects-best.html" target="_blank">With the 22-year-old representing himself</a>, 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.</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 to be 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 Wednesday 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. The judge's order specified he saw no reason to delay Tuesday's start of the penalty phase.</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;">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 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><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/AVvXsEidKrvfsIGWoan0meOL0LMulNk3G8F1XVbV0vLAOxyM-SnF_c9Fnc5VKoAnrLowBiiZRX9vYMyFNZWkl7RKKR9o6RGZLUMysn3GE6LwWU7TeDg6ndXLCDBiz1eixp8_wkneruyslNvw8so/s1600/An+excerpt+from+a+journal+written+by+Dylann+S.+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof" border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKrvfsIGWoan0meOL0LMulNk3G8F1XVbV0vLAOxyM-SnF_c9Fnc5VKoAnrLowBiiZRX9vYMyFNZWkl7RKKR9o6RGZLUMysn3GE6LwWU7TeDg6ndXLCDBiz1eixp8_wkneruyslNvw8so/s400/An+excerpt+from+a+journal+written+by+Dylann+S.+Roof.jpg" title="An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><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><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Source: phillyvoice.com, Associated Press, December 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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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...

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Dylann Roof Himself Rejects Best Defense Against Execution

<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/AVvXsEjxG8YnIunKkAoDrD_4rJBQzLaldx-5OR9xFJlVTG5zzu8UPsSZ8304evzd-2tiaErENFIbbl5UcLUzFyztS3Z-jIOf_c2V6TC3TKA3Ky4MN519gqY1VdsRuu4DRSGJwO1hPobj0DoHuoE/s1600/An+excerpt+from+a+journal+written+by+Dylann+S.+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof" border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxG8YnIunKkAoDrD_4rJBQzLaldx-5OR9xFJlVTG5zzu8UPsSZ8304evzd-2tiaErENFIbbl5UcLUzFyztS3Z-jIOf_c2V6TC3TKA3Ky4MN519gqY1VdsRuu4DRSGJwO1hPobj0DoHuoE/s400/An+excerpt+from+a+journal+written+by+Dylann+S.+Roof.jpg" title="An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An excerpt from a journal written by Dylann S. Roof</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Twenty-two pages into the hand-scribbled journal found in Dylann S. Roof’s car — after the assertions of black inferiority, the lamentations over white powerlessness, the longing for a race war — comes an incongruous declaration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I want state that I am morally opposed to psychology,” wrote the young white supremacist who would murder nine black worshipers at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015. “It is a Jewish invention, and does nothing but invent diseases and tell people they have problems when they dont.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Roof, who plans to represent himself when the penalty phase of his federal capital trial begins on Tuesday, apparently is devoted enough to that proposition (or delusion, as some maintain) to stake his life on it. Although a defense based on his psychological capacity might be his best opportunity to avoid execution, he seems steadfastly committed to preventing any public examination of his mental state or background.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I will not be calling mental health experts or presenting mental health evidence,” he wrote to Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court on Dec. 16, a day after a jury took only two hours to find him guilty of 33 counts, including hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations. At a hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Roof told the judge that he planned to make an opening statement but not call witnesses or present evidence on his behalf.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The testimony presented by prosecutors during the guilt phase of Mr. Roof’s trial detailed with gruesome precision how he had plotted and executed the massacre during a Wednesday night Bible study in the church’s fellowship hall. It was less satisfying in revealing why he had done it. With his choice to sideline his legal team and represent himself, the second phase — when the same jury of nine whites and three blacks will decide whether to sentence him to death or to life in prison — may prove little different.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Death penalty experts said it was exceedingly rare for capital defendants to represent themselves after allowing lawyers to handle the initial part of a case. Mr. Roof, who also faces a death penalty trial in state court, has not publicly explained his reasoning. But legal filings strongly suggest a split with his court-appointed defenders about whether to argue that his rampage resulted from mental illness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><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/AVvXsEgb8PAe9MYFvc5EpAKb6pzu8W_Adcn-uwkwuiRIutvUjwQZzZwjYAcFEIRy23404pDhfx0X9LZNy7JTeCYWcnPA6r8daZcF1sbGXty_jhAThUySrmSBkbH4ZiHb28yVRwSKmifE16L9cic/s1600/Dylann+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt=""A loner whose most meaningful relationship seemed to be with his cat."" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8PAe9MYFvc5EpAKb6pzu8W_Adcn-uwkwuiRIutvUjwQZzZwjYAcFEIRy23404pDhfx0X9LZNy7JTeCYWcnPA6r8daZcF1sbGXty_jhAThUySrmSBkbH4ZiHb28yVRwSKmifE16L9cic/s400/Dylann+Roof.jpg" title=""A loner whose most meaningful relationship seemed to be with his cat."" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"A loner whose most meaningful relationship seemed to be with his cat."</td></tr></tbody></table>Mr. Roof’s lead lawyer, David I. Bruck, tried repeatedly to plant that notion during the guilt phase, knowing it might be his only chance. Because evidence of mitigating factors is supposed to be reserved for the penalty phase, Judge Gergel allowed him little leeway.<br /><br />In his closing argument, while acknowledging Mr. Roof’s guilt, Mr. Bruck managed to tell the jury that Mr. Roof subscribed to “the mad idea that he can make things better by massacring the most virtuous, kind and gentle people he could ever have found.” Mr. Bruck seeded his speech with words like “abnormal,” “irrationality,” “senselessness,” “delusional,” “obsession” and “perseveration,” a psychiatric term referring to the uncontrollable repetition of a particular response.<br /><br />Mr. Bruck, one of the country’s most experienced death penalty litigators, portrayed his 22-year-old client as a loner whose most meaningful relationship seemed to be with his cat; who staged hundreds of photographs of himself with no sign of friends; whose racial hatred was ignited by internet searches and not personal experience; who could not pinpoint during his confession to the F.B.I. how many he had killed, how long he had spent at the church or even what month it was; who had no escape plan and left suicide notes to his parents.<br /><br />“There was something in him that made him feel that he had to do it,” Mr. Bruck said, “and that is as much as he knows.”<br /><br />After receiving the results of a psychiatric examination in November, Judge Gergel found Mr. Roof competent to stand trial — meaning that he was capable of understanding the proceedings and assisting in his defense. </div><br /><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/01/us/dylann-roof-execution-defense-charleston-church-shooting.html" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a></b><br /><br />Source: The New York Times, Kevin Sack, Alan Blinder, January 1, 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 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...

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