And this is just the federal trial. The state case is still to be tried. The poor families basically have to go through it all again, not to mention appeals that death penalty sentence will spur.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/us/dylann-roof-death-penalty-explainer/
The state charges are “nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a handgun during the commission of a violent crime.”
Actual executions of condemned prisoners in federal prison are rare.
I’m still morally opposed to the death penalty.
I believe the families of the victims are also opposed to his sentence of death.
His actions were vile beyond comprehension.
I still am adamantly opposed to the death penalty.
Why do they do this? Isn’t trying him once enough?
Probably because if the state did not bother to prosecute the case, the political optics would look quite bad (i.e. resembling old images of southern governments being racist enough not to prosecute white people who commit crimes against black people).
The state’s prosecutors in Charleston should strike a deal with Dylann Roof. In exchange for not putting him on trial, he must agree not to appeal his federal sentence and he must decline to accept a federal pardon for at least 25 years. No doubt that if tried in the courts of South Carolina, Roof will be convicted and executed. He’s no Susan Smith. There is no good reason for the State to expend a substantial amount of public resources when Roof will likely be sitting in a federal penitentiary for decades, if not for life…or even executed.
Do the prosecutors have the power to offer terms which obligate him to not exercise his rights to appeal/accept a pardon if offered? Not sure that can be offered without it being challenged with a decent chance of success.