Dylann Roof Sentenced to Death for Charleston Massacre

By Kenrya Rankin Jan 11, 2017

Dylann Roof, the then-21-year-old White supremacist who shot and killed nine Black people during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 17, 2015, was just sentenced to death.

Twelve jurors found Roof guilty on 33 federal charges, including hate crimes, on December 15. NPR reports that those same people unanimously decided today that he should face the death penalty for his crimes. Roof spewed racial hate online, confessed to the shooting shortly after his arrest and wrote in during his pre-trial incarceration that he was not apologetic for targeting the Black parishioners. Per USA Today: “I would like to make it crystal clear I do not regret what I did. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.”

Roof is the first person in United States history to receive a death sentence for committing a federal hate crime. The New York Times reports that the federal government has not carried out an execution since 2003.

Twitter reactions to the sentence range from jubilant to thoughtful: