Convicted mass killer Dylann Roof will plead guilty to state murder charges on April 10, sparing his nine victims’ loved ones a second grueling death penalty trial and ensuring he spends the rest of his life in prison.
By pleading guilty, Roof, the white supremacist who was convicted earlier this year of several federal charges including hate crimes and sentenced to death in the murders of nine black worshipers at a historical black church in South Carolina, will forgo the second death penalty trial that was scheduled to occur.
According to the Post and Courier, Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson was originally pursuing the death penalty for the nine murder charges that Roof faced, but she let the families of Roof’s hate-filled attack know that she would be accepting the guilty plea instead today.
“I write with great news that the State’s case is ready to wrap up. As I told you towards the end of trial and in other updates, at this point our goal is to provide an insurance policy to the federal conviction and sentence. The most effective way to do that is to secure a guilty plea for a life sentence and get the defendant into federal custody,” Wilson wrote in a letter obtained by the Post and Courier.
Roof likely will be moved after the plea from the Charleston County detention center to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility. Male prisoners sentenced to death usually are housed at a prison in Terre Haute, Ind., site of the federal execution chamber.
Roof, who represented himself and did not argue against the death penalty, showed no emotion as the verdict was read at his trial back in January. Prosecutors said he planned the shooting for months, intending to incite racial violence by targeting the oldest African-American congregation in the U.S. South.
