In a one-page order on September 24, 2021, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied federal death-row prisoner Dylann Roof’s motion seeking to reargue his appeal in front of the full circuit. On August 25, 2021, a special panel of judges from outside the circuit affirmed Roof’s convictions and death sentences for the racially motivated murders of nine parishioners in an historic Charleston, South Carolina African-American church in 2017.
Roof can still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, the last stage of the direct appeal process. If the court declines to hear the case or agrees to hear it but affirms his convictions and sentence, the next stage of the federal death penalty process — habeas corpus review — will begin.
Meg Kinnard, Government: Dylann Roof’s death sentence should stand, Associated Press, September 25, 2021; Celine Castronuovo, Appeals court declines to take up Dylann Roof’s death sentence challenge, The Hill, September 24, 2021.
