Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial set for November
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel on Tuesday set Nov. 7 as the start of serious questioning of prospective jurors in the upcoming federal Dylann Roof hate crimes-related death penalty trial.
The Nov. 7 date for jury selection means opening arguments in a trial expected to last up to some six weeks could begin in late November or early December.
At a hearing in Charleston federal court, Gergel said he intended to contact some 1,200-1,500 prospective jurors for possible service in the case. Some “hotheads” in that initial jury pool will be winnowed out by an initial paper questionnaire, but hundreds after that likely will be called for additional questioning in person by the judge, with defense and prosecution lawyers looking on, Gergel said.
The Nov. 7 date, a Monday, came as something of a surprise. It means a federal trial will get going almost three months before a long-awaited state death penalty trial for Roof. The state trial is supposed to start Jan. 27 in Charleston. Rarely, if ever, have two death penalty trials – one in state court and the other in federal – been scheduled back to back.
The questioning of potential jurors, called voir dire, is supposed to eliminate jurors with bias and could last three weeks, Gergel estimated. That would be followed by an estimated six weeks of a guilt-or-innocence trial phase, followed by a penalty phase – not including breaks for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
At the end of the jury voir dire, 12 jurors and six alternates will be chosen to sit through the trial, Gergel said.
Roof, 22, an avowed white supremacist from Columbia, is the alleged lone gunman charged by both state and federal prosecutors in the slayings of nine African-Americans on June 17 at the historic Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston. Three others, also African-Americans, were wounded. Before opening fire, Roof sat through an hour-long Wednesday night Bible study with the group, prosecutors’ filings have said.
Although most people expect the federal trial to be held in Charleston, Roof’s defense attorneys still have the option to move for a change of venue, in which case it likely would be held in Columbia.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Roof attorney David Bruck repeated an offer he has made a half-dozen times since last summer: Roof will plead guilty immediately in exchange for a sentence of life without parole.
“The plea offer has not been withdrawn and will never be withdrawn,” Bruck said.
However, assistant prosecutor U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson has so far declined the offer.
It was Bruck and his co-counsel, Michael O’Connell, who had moved for the speedy trial date.
Roof, who is in jail without bond and has not been at a hearing since last fall, was in court Tuesday.
Dressed in gray striped jail garb, Roof – who months ago had a domed haircut shaped like a bowl on his head – still had longish hair, but noticeably shorter, and cut in a traditional men’s slightly combed-over style. He sat between his lawyers and looked straight ahead. He did not speak.
During Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted some 90 minutes, Gergel gave notice to Bruck and Richardson he intends to move the trial along. Although he will listen to the lawyers, he intends to make decisions quickly.
“I will probably make no friends on this,” said Gergel in a disarmingly friendly tone. “I’ve always said, ‘If you want a friend, get a dog.’”
When Bruck told Gergel he wanted to delay telling the government who certain witnesses would be, Gergel told Bruck he had to give prosecutors adequate notice of the witnesses he was putting on.
“We don’t want a trial by ambush,” Gergel told the lawyers. “We want the parties to be adequately prepared to address the issues.”
Gergel also indicated he would keep the names of witnesses secret from the public until they actually testified to protect them from being intimidated by anyone, when their names “would be fair game” for the public and the media to know.
Although before and during the trial, Gergel made it clear he would keep certain matters under seal to protect Roof’s rights to a fair trial, after the trial he will unseal all sealed documents. “I have no desire to keep things from the public,” Gergel said.
In the audience on Tuesday was 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, who up until the hearing had been set to be the first prosecutor to try Roof.
Wilson had written Gergel a letter asking him to let her go first. She got her answer Tuesday.
As she left the hearing, Wilson made a short statement to assembled reporters in which she indicated she was still going ahead with preparing for her Jan. 27 Roof trial date, but acknowledging, “We will just see how things play out ... the judges are in control of who goes when.”
She told reporters that state and federal prosecutors are cooperating with each other and said her message to families and victims of the slayings is, “We’re not going anywhere” – meaning she will definitely try Roof.
The government, in giving notice last month that it would seek the death penalty, said Roof “attempted to incite violent action by others.”
Other factors contributing to the government’s decision, the notice said, were that Roof intended to kill more than one person “in a single criminal episode,” that he acted “after substantial planning and premeditation” and that among his victims were three people in their 70s and 80s, people “particularly vulnerable due to old age.”
This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial set for November."