Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Dylann Roof, who is accused of killing nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in July 2015.
Roof is charged with 33 federal offenses, including hate crime charges for allegedly targeting his victims on the basis of their race and religion.
Dylann Roof, the man accused in the racially driven massacre at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church last year, wrote two documents and had made a list of churches, according to recently filed court documents.
Federal authorities say the two handwritten documents, or what they are calling “manifestos,” were drafted by Roof, one before the 2015 attack and one while in jail.
Roof also lays out a list of churches and his “selection of victims,” describing the defendant’s “decision making and specific choice to target churchgoers attending Bible study in order to magnify the societal impact of his crimes,” said the filings released Monday, which did not disclose the specific contents of the documents.
Handwriting analysis experts are among a list of expert witnesses expected to testify at Roof’s November 7 death penalty trial.
Roof, 22, who is white, is accused of killing nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
A high school dropout, Roof was captured in North Carolina the day after the shootings. Investigators said he told them he wanted to start a race war.
In June, authorities found a website containing a 2,000-word racist manifesto and 60 pictures, which has since been used in the investigation into Roof and his possible motives.
Though Roof’s name doesn’t appear on the makeshift website called the Last Rhodesian, three photos show Roof posing with a pistol. One closeup shows a gun that can be identified as a.45-caliber Glock, the model investigators said was used in the church shooting. Those photos were taken in April, after Roof’s 21st birthday, when his family said he bought a .45-caliber gun.
The name “Last Rhodesian” is apparently a reference to the former British colony in Africa that was ruled by a white minority until it became independent in 1980 and changed its name to Zimbabwe.
Roof is charged with 33 federal offenses, including hate-crime charges for allegedly targeting his victims on the basis of their race and religion.
