White supremacist appeals death penalty in church massacre [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By DENISE LAVOIE

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — White supremacist Dylann Roof on Tuesday appealed his federal convictions and death sentence in the 2015 massacre of nine black church members in South Carolina, arguing that he was mentally ill when he represented himself at his capital trial.

In a 321-page legal brief filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Roof’s lawyers ask the court to review 20 issues, including errors they say were made by the judge and prosecutors that “tainted” his sentencing.

One of their main arguments is that U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel should not have allowed Roof to represent himself during the penalty phase of his trial because he was a 22-year-old ninth-grade dropout “who believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war.”

Roof’s appellate lawyers said Roof had been diagnosed with “schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, autism, anxiety, and depression,” but that he “jettisoned” his experienced trial attorneys to stop them from preventing evidence of his mental illness to jurors.



FILE - In this April 10, 2017, file photo, Dylann Roof enters the court room at the Charleston County Judicial Center to enter his guilty plea on murder charges in Charleston, S.C. White supremacist Roof on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, appealed his federal convictions and death sentence in the 2015 massacre of nine black church members in South Carolina, arguing that he was mentally ill when he represented himself at his capital trial. (Grace Beahm/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/941055904ee3722801c6189630b002ea