Dylann Roof Found Guilty For Charleston Church Massacre

Last year, Dylann Storm Roof, a radical young white supremacist, killed nine black parishioners during a long-planned assault on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The 22-year-old stood with his hands at his sides and his face emotionless, as a clerk read the verdict aloud in Federal District Court.

The New York Times reported that Dylann Roof had been charged with 33 counts, including hate crimes resulting in death. His own lawyers conceded his guilt, and Dylann Roof is to face the same jurors that found him guilty on Thursday, again on Jan. 3, 2017 when they discuss a more suspenseful phase of his trial: whether he will be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

Dylann Roof's guilt has been unquestioned, and the verdict was seen likely. However, the trial will hinge on the next steps. Last year's Boston Marathon Bombing Trial was the last case that saw the Justice Department obtain the rare death sentence, and it is still unclear what will happen from there. As The Washington Post noted, Federal Death sentences are rare, but it was the government that sought to seek one in Dylann Roof's case.

Federal prosecutors closed their arguments on Thursday with an emotional and harrowing picture of Dylann Roof, who confessed to the shootings, as an act that is cruel and calculated. They read lines from the journal they found in his car, and the manifesto he posted online as a case of someone who wanted to incite a race war.

The Dylann Roof trial is said to be one of the most unfathomable racial attacks in decades. The victims at Mother Emanuel were Rev. Clementa C Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons Sr., Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson.

Three others survived: Felicia Sanders, Polly Sheppard and Ms. Sander's 11-year-old granddaughter. Sheppard told the jurors that Dylann Roof, after the shooting, approached her and asked whether or not she was wounded. Upon finding out that she wasn't, he told her, "I'm going to leave you to tell the story."