Entries tagged with “Dylann Roof”
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Representation
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jan 30, 2020
Charleston Church Shooter Appeals Federal Death Sentence Amid Claims of Mental Incompetence
Lawyers for white supremacist Dylann Roof (pictured) have asked a federal appeals court to vacate his federal convictions and death sentences for the racially-motivated murders of nine worshipers at an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015. Roof’s lawyers raised more than a dozen claims of constitutional and legal error in a 321-page legal brief filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on January…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Representation
,Federal Death Penalty
,May 27, 2021
Citing Mental Incompetency From Racist Delusions, Appeal Lawyers Argue Trial Court Should Not Have Permitted Dylann Roof to Represent Himself
Lawyers for federal death row prisoner Dylann Roof argued to a federal appeals court that the avowed white supremacist’s convictions and death sentences in his trial for the 2015 murders of nine Black churchgoers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina should be overturned because the judge presiding over his case unconstitutionally permitted Roof to represent himself while mentally…
State & Federal Info
Federal Death Penalty
,Sep 24, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Denies Reconsideration of Dylann Roof Appeal
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…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Representation
,Federal Death Penalty
,Aug 26, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Convictions and Death Sentences for Dylann Roof
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has affirmed Dylann Roof’s federal-court convictions and death sentences for the racially motivated murders of nine parishioners in an historic Charleston, South Carolina African-American church in…
Policy Issues
Representation
,Federal Death Penalty
,Nov 28, 2016
Judge Grants Dylann Roof’s Request to Represent Himself in Federal Death Penalty Trial
U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Gergel granted a request on November 28 from Dylann Roof (pictured), the 22-year-old charged with the murders of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to represent himself in his federal capital trial. Judge Gergel described Roof’s decision as “strategically unwise,” but said, “It is a decision you have the right to make.” A criminal defendant’s right to self-representation was…
Policy Issues
Mental Illness
,Federal Death Penalty
,May 11, 2017
Newly Released Documents Show Dylann Roof Feared Being Labeled Mentally Ill More Than He Feared Death Sentence
Newly unsealed psychiatric evaluations and court transcripts in the case of Dylann Roof (pictured) — sentenced to death for the racially motivated killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina—raise additional questions as to whether Roof was competent to waive representation in his death penalty proceedings and to forego presenting mental health evidence in his…
Facts & Research
Clemency
,Federal Death Penalty
,Jun 16, 2021
White House Reasserts Opposition to Death Penalty, Stresses Independence of Justice Department as DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Death Sentence in Boston Marathon Bombing
As the Department of Justice filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking reinstatement of the death sentence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing, the White House press office issued a statement stressing the independence of the Department over the cases it is pursuing and asserting that President Joe Biden has not backed away from his campaign promise to work to end the federal death…