Tag: Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston

Hate, Hate crime, Prejudice

Dylan Roof Sentenced to DEATH!!!

The ReadyWriter

aabttlvA U.S. jury on Tuesday condemned white supremacist Dylan Roof to death for the hate-fueled killings of nine black parishioners at a Bible study meeting in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015.

The same jury last month found Roof, 22, guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the shootings at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Jurors deliberated for less than three hours. Roof stared straight ahead as the judge read through the jury’s verdict findings before announcing his death sentence.

Roof, who represented himself for the penalty phase, was unrepentant during his closing argument earlier in the day. He told jurors he still felt the massacre was something he had to do and did not ask that his life be spared.

Roof’s hate was apparent as he was unremorseful during testimony of the entire trial.

Roof still faces a trial on murder charges in state court, where prosecutors also are seeking the death penalty.

Hate, Hate crime, Racial Slurs, Racial tension, racial unrest, Racially motivated, Racist, Violence

Dylan Roof told her……”He Spared her life, so she could tell the story”

The ReadyWriter

Felicia Sanders (R) and Polly Sheppard (L), two of the three survivors of the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, walk off the stage on the third evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 27, 2016
Felicia Sanders (R) and Polly Sheppard (L), two of the three survivors of the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, walk off the stage on the third evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 27, 2016

A survivor of last year’s massacre of nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, SC recalled in federal court today how gunman, Dylann Roof, spared her life, telling her he needed her “to tell the story.”

Polly Sheppard (pictured above left), told a jury, she dove under a table as shots rang out at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015 at the end of a Bible study session.

When Sheppard opened her eyes, Roof’s boots were in her line of sight, she told the jury who’s hearing the federal death penalty case in South Carolina, what Roof said to her.

“Did I shoot you yet?” Roof asked, according to Sheppard.

“No,” she replied.

“I’m not going to. I need you to tell the story,” Roof said.

Roof was given a Bible and pamphlet when he entered the church and joined the group, Sheppard recalled.

At the end of the session about 50 minutes later, the group stood to pray, closing their eyes.

That was when gunshots rang out.

Sheppard said she mistook them for the sparking of old electrical wiring until her friend Felicia Sanders started screaming.

“Oh, he’s shooting everybody, Miss Polly,” Sheppard recalled Sanders saying.

Sheppard told the court how Roof executed 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, Felicia Sanders’s son.

“Why are you doing this? We mean you no harm,” said a wounded Tywanza Sanders, who propped himself up on his elbows to address the attacker before being shot dead.

“I have to. I have to. You’re raping our women and taking over the nation,” Roof said, according to Sheppard’s account.

Closing arguments are set for tomorrow, with the jury expected to begin deliberations. Should he be found guilty, Roof has elected to represent himself during the sentencing phase of the trial. Either way, he faces the death penalty.