XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: Davecross@kremlin.ru   
      
   White supremacist Dylann Roof on Tuesday appealed his federal   
   convictions and death sentence in the 2015 massacre of nine   
   black church members in South Carolina, arguing that he was   
   mentally ill when he represented himself at his capital trial.   
      
   In a 321-page legal brief filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court   
   of Appeals in Richmond, Roof's lawyers ask the court to review   
   20 issues, including errors they say were made by the judge and   
   prosecutors that “tainted” his sentencing.   
      
   One of their main arguments is that U.S. District Judge Richard   
   Gergel should not have allowed Roof to represent himself during   
   the penalty phase of his trial because he was a 22-year-old   
   ninth-grade dropout “who believed his sentence didn't matter   
   because white nationalists would free him from prison after an   
   impending race war.”   
      
   Roof's appellate lawyers said Roof had been diagnosed with   
   “schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, autism, anxiety, and   
   depression,” but that he “jettisoned” his experienced trial   
   attorneys to stop them from presenting evidence of his mental   
   illness to jurors.   
      
   They said his trial attorneys told the judge that in their   
   decades of experience, “none had represented a defendant so   
   disconnected from reality.” Roof, they said, presented no   
   mitigating evidence to the jury.   
      
   “Instead, prosecutors told them Roof was a calculated killer   
   with no signs of mental illness. Given no reason to do   
   otherwise, jurors sentenced Roof to death," his attorneys wrote.   
      
   “Roof’s crime was tragic, but this Court can have no confidence   
   in the jury’s verdict."   
      
   Roof became the first person to be ordered executed for a   
   federal hate crime when he was sentenced to death for fatally   
   shooting nine black church members at Emanuel AME Church in   
   Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015.   
      
   Prosecutors said he specifically chose Emanuel AME, the South’s   
   oldest black church, to carry out the massacre. After he was   
   arrested, Roof told FBI agents that he wanted the shootings to   
   bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war.   
      
   The jury's verdict came after a trial in which the avowed white   
   supremacist did not show any remorse or attempt to fight for his   
   life. Roof never explained why he committed the massacre.   
      
   Roof's legal advisers repeatedly expressed frustration that Roof   
   wouldn’t allow them to introduce mental health evidence that   
   could possibly spare his life.   
      
   Roof asked jurors to forget anything they’d heard from his legal   
   team about his mental state, declaring, “there’s nothing wrong   
   with me psychologically.”   
      
   “I still feel like I had to do it,” Roof said in his closing   
   argument.   
      
   “Anyone who hates anything in their mind has a good reason for   
   it.”   
      
   Prosecutors told the jury that Roof walked into the church and   
   sat with the Bible study group for about 45 minutes, then opened   
   fire during the final prayer, when everyone's eyes were closed.   
      
   The federal jury convicted Roof of 33 federal charges, including   
   hate crimes. During a separate proceeding in state court, Roof   
   was given nine life sentences in exchange for his guilty plea.   
      
   In their legal brief, Roof's appellate lawyers argue that the   
   “federal trial shouldn't have happened at all.” They said the   
   state quickly brought capital charges against Roof's “wholly-   
   intrastate crime,” but months later, federal prosecutors sought   
   their own death sentence. They argue that state officials   
   “viewed the federal prosecution as unnecessary and disruptive.”   
      
   “This Court should vacate Roof’s convictions and death   
   sentence,” they wrote.   
      
   Roof's appellate lawyers include: Amy Karlin, interim Federal   
   Public Defender for the Central District of California; James   
   Wyda, Federal Public Defender for Maryland; Alexandra Yates,   
   Deputy Federal Public Defender for the Central District of   
   California; and Sapna Mirchandani, Assistant Federal Public   
   Defender for Maryland.   
      
   The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a   
   request for comment on the claims made in Roof's appeal. A   
   response brief from the DOJ is due on Feb. 18.   
      
   The massacre prompted South Carolina to remove the Confederate   
   flag from its Statehouse. Roof had posed with the flag in photos.   
      
   The slain included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church's   
   pastor and a state senator; a high school track coach; the   
   church sexton; a librarian; and an aspiring poet.   
      
   https://www.foxnews.com/us/white-supremacist-appeals-death-   
   penalty-in-church-massacre   
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)