The Charleston assassin, who killed nine blacks in a U.S. church in 2015, is taking his death sentence. In the trial against Dylann Roof, who was 22 years old at the time of the crime, his mental state was not taken into account, his lawyers said in their appeal to the court.
Lawyers refer to mental illness
According to the lawyers, the accused was allowed to defend himself even though he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, autism, anxiety and depression.
The racially motivated assassin had refused to defend himself at the time so that his mental disorders would not come to light. He also said he was against hearing witnesses because he believed that „white nationalists would free him from prison after a racial war,“ the appeal said.
His lawyers also accused the court of refraining from consulting experts in order to speed up the process. The prosecutor described him as a „calculating killer with no evidence of mental illness“.
Found guilty in 2017
Roof mingled with Bible study participants in a church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015, and killed the pastor and eight church members. He was found guilty by a federal court on 33 charges and sentenced to death in January 2017.
