CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Latest on the start of jury selection in the federal trial of Dylann Roof in the Charleston church shootings. (all times local):
10:20 a.m.
Jury screening is underway in the federal death penalty trial of Dylann Roof in the Charleston, South Carolina, church shootings.
About 80 potential jurors reported to the federal courthouse in Charleston on Monday morning. They are the first of hundreds expected to report during the coming days.
The 22-year-old Roof, dressed in a gray and white-striped prison jumpsuit, sat with his attorneys facing the potential jurors as the jury roll call was held. He generally avoided eye contact with jurors, staring down during the proceedings.
Roof is charged with 33 federal counts, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion, in the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine parishioners at Emanuel AME Church.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said trial testimony is likely to begin in late November or early December.
___
6:25 a.m.
Hundreds of potential jurors report to the federal courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, in the coming days as the jury selection begins in the trial of a white man charged in deaths of nine black church parishioners.
Dylann Roof faces hate crimes and other federal counts in the June 2015 shooting deaths at Emanuel AME Church. The first jurors report Monday for initial screening.
Three thousand jurors have received summonses — a group that will be whittled to a pool of 700 jurors who return to the courthouse in November to be questioned individually by the judge.
Testimony isn't expected to begin until after Thanksgiving. While federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, Roof's attorneys have said he's willing to plead guilty and serve life if the death penalty is taken off the table.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
