Church gunman insists to jury that he is not mentally ill
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann Roof spoke Wednesday for the first time to the jurors who will decide whether he should be executed for fatally shooting nine black parishioners during a Bible study, insisting that he is not mentally ill and forgoing a chance to plead for his life.
The soft-spoken 22-year-old white man told the jury that he was not trying to keep any secrets from them. He did not offer remorse or seek forgiveness or ask them to spare him from a lethal injection.
“My opening statement is going to seem a little bit out of place,” Roof said calmly as he delivered the brief remarks at a podium, occasionally glancing at notes. “I am not going to lie to you. … Other than the fact that I trust people that I shouldn’t and the fact that I’m probably better at constantly embarrassing myself than anyone who’s ever existed, there’s nothing wrong with me psychologically.”
Shortly before Roof’s statement, prosecutors presented a jailhouse journal in which he wrote that he did not regret the massacre or “shed a tear” for the dead.