COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Latest on (all times local):
2 p.m.
Gov. Nikki Haley's office has released thousands of documents revealing details of communications surrounding her response to the shooting of nine black parishioners at a historic South Carolina church last summer.
The more than 10,000 documents released to media organizations Wednesday under an open records request include communications between the governor and constituents in the aftermath of the June 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
The documents include messages about the ensuing debate surrounding the Confederate flag that then flew on the Statehouse grounds. Dylann Roof, the white man charged in the shootings, had embraced the flag in pictures online and told a friend he wanted to start a race war with the shootings.
Haley called for the flag's removal, and lawmakers voted to take it down several weeks after the shooting.
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9 a.m.
The white man accused of killing nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church wants the federal charges against him dismissed.
Attorneys for Dylann Roof argued in court papers filed Tuesday that the nearly three-dozen charges against Dylann Roof should be thrown out in part because they infringe on a case that is best argued in state court. Attorney Sarah Gannett also said she'd drop the challenge if the government agreed not to pursue the death penalty.
His attorneys have previously said Roof would plead guilty if the death penalty were off the table.
Roof's federal trial for the June 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church is set to begin in November. State prosecutors are also pursuing the death penalty, and their case is slated for January.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/
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