Accused white supremacist Roof’s arraignment in Charleston moved to next Friday
COLUMBIA, SC An initial court appearance on the federal hate crime and other charges that alleged white supremacist killer Dylann Roof is facing has been moved to next Friday at the federal courthouse in Charleston.
Roof was originally scheduled to appear Monday at the federal courthouse before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bristow Marchant.
At that arraignment, Roof will formally be presented with the charges against him.
No reason was given for the change in hearing date, according to papers filed Friday in the court record of Roof’s case.
The motion to continue was made by both prosecution and defense lawyers, including Roof’s new nationally-known defense lawyer, David Bruck, who was appointed by the court earlier in the week.
The joint motion said, “This brief continuance is requested to accommodate the obligations of counsel for both the defense and the government, and will not prejudice the interests of either party or the public.”
It was Bruck’s first appearance on a court motion in the Roof case.
With Bruck on the joint motion were William Nettles IV and Ann Walsh, two S.C. federal public defenders appointed to the case, and the two assistant U.S. attorneys on the case, Julius “Jay” Richardson and Nathan Williams.
A 33-count federal indictment issued Wednesday charges Roof, 21, a white man from the Columbia area, with 12 counts of committing a federal hate crime (nine counts of murder and three attempted murders) against black victims, 12 counts of obstructing the exercise of religion resulting in death and nine counts of the use of a firearm to commit murder.
Most of the crimes are eligible for the death penalty, which is seldom sought by federal prosecutors. Prosecutors have not yet made a decision in this case. Roof would be first in South Carolina to be considered for a federal hate crime-related death penalty.
A Charleston County grand jury has also indicted Roof on nine state murder charges in the case. Solicitor Scarlett Wilson has not made a decision on whether to seek the death penalty in state court.
The indictment says Roof killed eight parishioners and their pastor with a Glock .45 during a church prayer meeting and, in a new release of information, said he came to the meeting with eight magazines loaded with hollow-point bullets.
Roof sat next to the church’s pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney at the historic “Mother” Emanuel AME Church before opening fire, killing him and eight others, the indictment says.
The indictment also cites racist statements, racist slurs and Confederate flag and other photographs of and by Roof published on an Internet site shortly before the June 17 killings.
This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Accused white supremacist Roof’s arraignment in Charleston moved to next Friday."