The mother of the accused Charleston church shooter had a heart attack in court after hearing prosecutors describe her son’s actions, the attorney for Dylann Roof said in court documents Thursday.
Roof’s attorney, David Bruck, asked for a mistrial in the court documents, citing the heart attack as one of the reasons. Bruck added that one survivor’s testimony was so emotional that “spectators and even court personnel — including members of the prosecution and defense — were crying with her.”
The mother of the self-avowed wife supremacist who is accused of gunning down nine black parishioners in a racially motivated attack last summer in Charleston, S.C., collapsed on Wednesday and said “I’m sorry” several times as help came to her side.
In the court documents asking for the mistrial, Bruck also argued that the testimony from shooting survivor Felicia Sanders inappropriately suggested what Roof’s sentence should be.
“He said he was going to kill himself,” Sanders said during cross-examination. “I was counting on that. There’s no place on Earth for him other than the pit of hell.”
However, the mistrial request was denied by U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, calling Sanders’ testimony “a religious comment.”
In the ongoing case against Roof, he is charged with 33 federal crimes, including hate crimes. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and rejected an offer from Roof to plead guilty for life in prison without parole.
In a separate case in South Carolina, he faces nine counts of murder.
