CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Latest on legal proceedings in the trials of Dylann Roof in the Charleston church shootings (all times local):
10:50 a.m.
Federal prosecutors say Dylann Roof should not be allowed to ask the jury for mercy in his upcoming trial in the Charleston church shootings.
In documents filed Tuesday, prosecutors say that while a defendant can ask a judge for mercy, appeals courts have held a defendant doesn't have a right to do so before a jury passes its sentence.
The prosecutors say U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel should not allow Roof to do so.
Roof's death penalty trial on hate crimes stemming from the June 2015 killings of nine parishioners at Emanuel AME Church begins in November. Gergel has ordered 3,000 prospective jurors to report to be screened.
Roof's attorneys have repeatedly said he is willing to plead guilty and serve life in prison if prosecutors don't seek the death penalty.
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7:40 a.m.
A South Carolina judge is ordering 600 prospective jurors to report in January for the state murder trial of the man accused in the Charleston church shootings.
Twenty-two-year-old Dylann Roof faces death penalty trials in both state and federal court in the June, 2015, slayings of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church.
In a Tuesday order, Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson says the first of the jurors should report to the Charleston County Courthouse Jan. 17. His order says the trial will begin on or after Jan. 30.
Meanwhile, Roof's federal trial on hate crimes and other charges is set for November.
Three thousand potential jurors are being summoned in that case. They begin reporting later this month to fill out questionnaires about what that they know about the shootings.
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