Sentencing Law and Policy: Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to have appeal of his death sentence heard by (unusual) Fourth Circuit panel typepad.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from typepad.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
COLUMBIA, S.C. â Defense lawyers will advance arguments Tuesday on up to 20 issues in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, as to why Dylann Roof was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to the death penalty in 2017 after a weekslong trial. They will ask the court to vacate both the conviction and the death penalty.
Those arguments will be countered by a team of prosecution appellate lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice. They seek to uphold the conviction and sentence.
Roof, 27, who grew up in Columbia, was sentenced to death in January 2017 by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel after a jury found him guilty of 18 death-eligible federal hate crimes and firearms charges in the Charleston church shooting. In a subsequent proceeding to determine sentence, the same jury ruled Roof deserved the death penalty. Gergel then pronounced the sentence.