CHARLESTON, S.C. – A federal judge is taking up jury selection and other matters in the trial of a white man charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel holds a motions hearing Monday in the case of 22-year-old Dylann Roof. He's scheduled to stand trial Nov. 7.
Roof is charged with hate crimes and other counts and faces the death penalty in the June, 2015, shooting deaths at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. He will not attend the hearing.
A hearing notice said jury selection is being considered, although there is also a motion before the court to dismiss the charges.
Defense attorneys say they are willing to have the jury selected from the Charleston area instead of from across South Carolina.
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