Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof told the jurors who could sentence him to death on Tuesday that he “felt like I had to do it, and I still feel like I had to do it.”
Roof, 22, represented himself during the sentencing phase of his federal death penalty trial. He has already been convicted of opening fire and killing nine black parishioners during a Bible study in June 2016.
The jury begins deliberations after Tuesday’s closing arguments.
“I think that it’s safe to say that no one in their right mind wants to go into a church and kill people,” Roof said.
“In my confession to the FBI I told them that I had to do it,” Roof added, “But obviously that’s not really true. I didn’t have to do it and no one made me do it.”
“What I meant when I said that was I felt like I had to do it and I still feel like I had to do it,” he added.
Roof did not apologize for his actions. In his roughly five-minute closing argument, Roof said he had “the right to ask you to give me a life sentence.”
But, he added: “I’m not sure what good that will do anyway. All I know is only one of you has to disagree” with other jurors.
“I know that at least some of you were asked during jury selection … if you were willing to stand up for your own opinion,” Roof said, before concluding, “That’s all. Thank you.”
U.S. Assistant District Attorney Jay Richardson gave a two-hour closing argument, calling Roof “an extraordinary racist.”
“Render the full measure of justice for this defendant,” Richardson added. “Sentence this defendant to death.”
