I guess it isn’t too surprising that Dylan Roof, the mass murderer of the #Charleston9, pleaded not guilty to the federal hate crime charges that he is facing. Reports are indicating that Roof and his lawyer are waiting to see if the death penalty is going to be an option.
Dylan Roof appeared in court today in Charleston to announce his plea. Roof is facing many federal charges and some of those include hate crimes and obstructing the practice of religion. Apparently, Roof is not facing any terroristic charges because the FBI says he did not have a political agenda behind his killings. However, looking at what the government deems as domestic terrorism, it sure seems that Roof meets those requirements.
According to reports, Roof and his attorney actually planned to plead guilty but, since the state has not announced whether or not they will go after the death penalty in his case, they decided to plead not guilty. One thing is for sure though in the case, Roof’s attorney definitely has a tough job ahead of him. At this point, is he even fighting for Roof’s freedom or maybe his plan will be to go after the lightest sentence possible?
The government’s announcement of whether or not they will seek the death penalty will most likely be come sooner than later.
