AP Photos: Church shooting: As sentence nears, a look back

FILE -In this Friday, June 19, 2015 file photo, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. lead a crowd of people in prayer outside the Emanuel AME Church, after a memorial for the nine people killed by Dylann Roof in Charleston, S.C. A federal jury will consider whether Roof should be sentenced to death or life in prison for the racially motivated attack.(AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File) (The Associated Press)

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FILE-In this Friday, June 19, 2015 file photo, J. Denise Cromwell, left, hugs her daughter, Asia Cromwell, center, and a friend Sandy Teckledburg outside the Emanuel AME Church after a memorial in Charleston, S.C. A federal jury will consider whether Dylann Roof should be sentenced to death or life in prison for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE-In this Wednesday, June 17, 2015 file photo, a man looks on as a group of people arrive inquiring about the shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. A federal jury will consider whether Roof should be sentenced to death or life in prison for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) (The Associated Press)

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The massacre of nine black church members brought the U.S. to its knees when Dylann Roof opened fire during a Bible study on June 17, 2015. The white man was convicted of hate crimes and other charges last month and now faces the death penalty or life in prison.

The same jurors who convicted him will likely begin their deliberations next week. Roof's sentencing trial has taken on the feel of a memorial to the victims, as many of their friends and family members testified about their loved ones, re-opening wounds.

The 22-year-old Roof addressed the jurors and insisted that he was not mentally ill, but he didn't ask them to spare his life.