The man sitting on federal death row for murdering nine Black South Carolina church members is appealing both his conviction and death sentence.
The Associated Press reports oral arguments in Dylann Roof’s case are scheduled for Tuesday in front of a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia.
Roof became the first individual in the United States sentenced to death for a federal hate crime in 2017. He was arrested for opening fire during the closing prayer of a Bible study session at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in 2015. Roof was 21-years-old at the time.
In the appellate brief, Roof’s attorneys argued that his case is remanded back to court for a “proper competency evaluation.”
“The federal trial that resulted in his death sentence departed so far from the standard required when the government seeks the ultimate price that it cannot be affirmed,” they wrote. Their argument centered around the fact that Roof represented himself as a result of his mental illness. They claim this prevented him from hiring effective counsel.
Before his trial and again before his sentencing, Judge Richard Gergel held competency hearings to determine if Roof could act as his own attorney. His appellate counsel claims that during sentencing, Roof successfully prevented jurors from hearing mitigating evidence about his mental health, “under the delusion he would be rescued from prison by white-nationalists — but only, bizarrely, if he kept his mental impairments out of the public record.”
Roof was sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in 2017 to state murder charges following his federal trial.
