Dylann Roof Found Guilty
[guest post by Dana]
Dylann Roof, who opened fire at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last year, killing nine parishioners, was found guilty today:
Roof was charged with 33 counts in his federal indictment. He was found guilty on every single one. Family members of the nine parishioners gunned down last year nodded silently as each charge was read aloud. Some held hands, their eyes shut tightly, as each guilty verdict was announced in the courtroom just a mile from the church.
According to reports, Roof’s mother had a heart attack during the proceedings when she heard prosecutors lay out in graphic detail her son’s plans to start a race war.
It will be determined in January whether Roof will be sentenced to death or face life in prison. Roof is planning to represent himself at the sentencing phase of the trial.
Interestingly, a recent poll revealed more black South Carolinians would rather that Roof be given a life sentence instead of the death penalty:
According to the poll, 64.9% of African Americans in South Carolina oppose the death penalty, while 69.4% of white South Carolinians say they support it. Blacks were also more than twice as likely to support a sentence of life without parole for the church killings than to support the death penalty. Nearly two-thirds of black South Carolinians (64.7%) said that Roof should be sentenced to life without parole if convicted of the nine killings, while less than a third (30.9%) favored the death penalty.
The views of white South Carolinians were diametrically opposite, with 64.6% saying they think Roof should be sentenced to death if convicted and 29.9% prefering life without parole. 5.6% of whites said they did not know which sentence should be imposed.
As a reminder, this is the divine love of grace and strength and mercy offered to Roof from surviving relatives at a bond hearing:
Nadine Collier, daughter of victim Ethel Lance
“I forgive you. You took something very precious away from me. I will never get to talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you, and have mercy on your soul. … You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. If God forgives you, I forgive you.”Relative of Myra Thompson
“I would just like him to know that, to say the same thing that was just said: I forgive him and my family forgives him. But we would like him to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give your life to the one who matters most: Christ. So that He can change him and change your ways, so no matter what happens to you, you’ll be okay.”Felicia Sanders, mother of Tywanza Sanders
“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with welcome arms. You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I know. Every fiber in my body hurts and I’ll, I’ll never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son. But Tywanza Sanders was my hero. Tywanza was my hero. … May God have mercy on you.”Wanda Simmons, granddaughter of Daniel Simmons
“Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof, everyone’s plea for your soul, is proof that they lived in love and their legacies will live in love. So hate won’t win. And I just want to thank the court for making sure that hate doesn’t win.”Sister of DePayne Middleton Doctor
“That was my sister, and I’d like to thank you on behalf of my family for not allowing hate to win. For me, I’m a work in progress. And I acknowledge that I am very angry. But one thing that DePayne always enjoined in our family … is she taught me that we are the family that love built. We have no room for hating, so we have to forgive. I pray God on your soul.”
And, because some “professional” journalists simply can’t help themselves from a delusional exploitation of the horrific event, and because there will always be hate, there is this:
Roof’s crime is so monstrous that it may rankle to put him on the same continuum as Trump. But to see both with clear eyes is to see the link between demonization and aggression, between Trump’s rhetoric, simmering with menace, and the wave of harassment, intimidation, and outright violence that followed his victory. It’s to see both Donald Trump and Dylann Roof as heralds of the darkest forces in American life, to see their common heritage in a rising tide of white identity and white nationalism.
–Dana
The contrast between the divine wisdom and deep insights of the surviving relatives versus the ridiculous efforts of Slate’s Jamelle Bouie to appear wise are light years apart.
Dana (d17a61) — 12/15/2016 @ 7:03 pmRegarding the ridiculous Slate article, I suggested on Twitter that President Obama and Major Nidal Hasan likely have the same views on Isreal’s West Bank settlements, so by Slate logic that means they are brothers in Israeli criticism.
JVW (6e49ce) — 12/15/2016 @ 7:27 pmJamelle Bouie has more in common with Dylan Roof than either of them would admit. They”re both racists under the skin.
ropelight (78afaa) — 12/15/2016 @ 7:35 pmGreetings:
I seem to have developed a pretty calloused attitude toward the required breast-beatings and genuflections that are desired from me because some other white man has acted criminally toward a member of one/some of our protected demographics. In this particular case, I can’t but think that inclusion of some of those U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics, let’s say murders and rapes, in the blacks on whites category versus whites on blacks. Someone with even a rudimentary understanding of statistics might find them, what’s the favored progressive descriptor, oh yes, “disproportionate” but not in the direction or current “make a difference” media storytellers would prefer.
This was a terrible mass murder that Roof committed in a church, no less. But please understand, his terrible actions have now been rerouted into useful propaganda by those are willing and think themselves capable of transforming America in their own private Animal Farm. It wouldn’t surprise me very much at all if, in the interim, more whites have been murdered by blacks in North Carolina than Roof murdered. But as far as our media is concerned, that’s a story for another day, the day after never.
11B40 (6abb5c) — 12/15/2016 @ 8:50 pmThe continuum, and it’s a short one, runs directly from Roof to Bouie. Hate is their shtick.
ThOR (c9324e) — 12/15/2016 @ 8:59 pm“We may never know what his motive was.”
— Loretta Lynch, speaking about the Orlando Muslim Jihadi who shot up the gay dance club this past June
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 12/15/2016 @ 9:04 pmHe’s a thug, should have been quickly dispatched, but the left had to take the opportunity to engage in proscription (bs boulle was among the water carriers for the Sanford narrative.
narciso (d1f714) — 12/15/2016 @ 9:10 pmTwo n’s. Dylann.
There’s still only one “n” in insect.
JRM (c80289) — 12/15/2016 @ 9:10 pmUgh. Thanks, JRM.
Dana (d17a61) — 12/15/2016 @ 9:26 pmWhatever will end up costing taxpayers less money works for me. Exterminating him will be costly, but this maggot could live for a very long time, justifying the expense.
Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 12/15/2016 @ 9:52 pmThere isn’t a principled alignment between those two men.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The cognitive dissonance caused by Pro-Choice/diversity must be deafening.
n.n (e2c80e) — 12/15/2016 @ 10:11 pmI forgive Trump.
Pinandpuller (734cc1) — 12/15/2016 @ 10:55 pmWhat paper is that pic/article from, sirrah?
IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d) — 12/16/2016 @ 12:57 amTwo n’s. Dylann.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: Satan only needed one.
JVW (6e49ce) — 12/16/2016 @ 1:02 amhttp://acculturated.com/rogue-one-makes-white-guys-enemy-future/
‘Rogue One’ Makes White Guys the Enemy of the Future
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/16/2016 @ 1:36 amTo his credit Obama has called for a boycott of the newest Star Wars movie.
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/16/2016 @ 1:49 amHe knows that monsters are made , not born, and that demonizing young white boys on what amounts to a cartoon feature aimed at young white boys as the target audience is just begging for a new generation of Dylann Roofs’s.
I believe their bigotry is right there on their skin.
Donald (bd230b) — 12/16/2016 @ 3:59 amAlways remember that among the “grievances” of this useless stain on the human race is that he couldn’t find enough other racists to hang out with.
matt d (d4aa6f) — 12/16/2016 @ 8:50 amHe found plenty of racists – it’s just they were all racist against his kind.
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/16/2016 @ 9:01 amJamelle Bouie’s connection of President-elect Donald Trump to Dylann Roof is obscene.
Mike S (89ec89) — 12/16/2016 @ 10:15 am“Jamelle Bouie’s connection of President-elect Donald Trump to Dylann Roof is obscene.”
pst314 (79c5c1) — 12/16/2016 @ 4:44 pmAgreed.
slate and its sick diseased bigotry is bill and melinda gate’s gift to the whirl
their life’s legacy really
especially at christmas it’s something we should remember and cherish
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/16/2016 @ 4:50 pmscuse me *gates’* i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/16/2016 @ 4:54 pmSo why do we need new laws? Dylan roof was convicted under existing law.
Michael Ejercito (462fbe) — 12/17/2016 @ 11:13 amAlternatively, and more accurately, titled, “I am one needy b***and I can’t stand it when I don’t get the attention that I crave.”
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 12/18/2016 @ 12:12 pmI asked the same question back in the early ‘2000s on one “bagel Friday” (Your tax dollars at work [just kidding, we paid for our own bagels as we were DoN, not OPM or GSA or IRS who can apparently use their gub’mint credit cards to live like Saudi royalty at Vegas or DC or NYC or Hawaii hotels and strip clubs and what have you; we didn’t even use them for bagels and cream cheese]). So during one of authorized breaks I’m chowing down on one of bagels we all chipped in to buy and I get to look at the morning edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune after the chief is done with it. It was his subscription.
It was amazing. Texas had had convicted the killers of James Byrd and sentenced them to death. That was on the left page at the fold in the news section. On the right was an article about how the killings of James Byrd, a black man, and Matthew Shephard proved the states didn’t take “hate” crimes seriously.
I nearly choke on my bagel. Texas is executing the MoFos. How much more seriously can you take it? Didn’t any editor responsible for the layout of the newspaper notice this?
As I recall the state of Wyoming was eager to pursue the death penalty against the killers of Matthew Shephard (despite the mythology it wasn’t because of some “homophobic panic” but apparently over a drug deal, not that excuses murder). But the family asked them not to.
So, I asked myself then, why do we need new laws? The we yokels were lining up to say, “Sure, we’re happy to kill the sumbeeotches.” It sure looked to me that there was nothing broken with state laws that needed federal fixing.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 12/18/2016 @ 9:31 pm