by Kenya Downs and Laura Santhanam

January 6, 2017

 

On June 17, 2015, just after 8 p.m., 21-year-old Dylann Roof walked into a bible study session at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina with a .45-caliber Glock pistol and seven extra loaded magazines. He sat in the prayer meeting for nearly an hour before opening fire on the worshippers, murdering nine people, including the pastor.

A website discovered shortly after the shooting and registered under Roof’s name showed him posing with the confederate flag, embracing Nazi symbols and included a manifesto that supported segregation and criticized black people as inferior.

“You need to prove not just the incident, but the state of mind of the defendant — that what they intended was hate-motivated.”

On Dec. 15, Roof was found guilty on 33 counts of federal hate crimes. He now faces the death penalty. The sentencing portion of his trial resumed this week. Prosecutors convicted Roof on the hate crimes charges by pointing to a documented history of racial bias both from character witnesses and internet activity. In this case, the strength of circumstantial evidence played a major role in Roof’s conviction.

 

Full article:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/hate-crimes-difficult-convict/