Dylan Roof gets the Death Penalty for shooting and killing 9

http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/local/breaking-death-penalty-for-charleston-church-shooter-dylan-roof/article_2dbef905-3d4c-5b72-9416-65b4c589e0fd.html

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Jurors have reached a verdict in the penalty phase of the trial of convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.

After three hours of deliberation, the federal jury has decided that Roof should be sentenced to death.

Roof, an avowed white supremacist, shot and killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June 2015. Jurors convicted him last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges.

Judge Richard Gergel will formally sentence Roof on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Developing story...

3:40 p.m.

Jurors deliberating whether Dylann Roof should get death or life in prison have raised several questions about his potential imprisonment.

The jury on Tuesday asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel for clarification on some of the mitigating factors they're being asked to consider, including if Roof could safely be confined if he were sentenced to life in prison. The judge told jurors to re-read the instructions he provided them to figure out what that means.

Jurors also asked to re-watch a speech by the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the nine people Roof killed during a Bible study in 2015.

So far, jurors have deliberated Roof's sentence more than two hours.

Roof didn't ask jurors to spare his life and told them he still feels he "had to" kill the nine Bible study attendees at Emanuel AME Church.

Roof gave a brief closing of his own, telling jurors he knew he could ask them to spare his life but wasn't sure "what good that would do."

Roof is his own attorney in these proceedings and also told jurors he knew only one of them had to disagree with the others in order for him to avoid a death sentence.