Authorities have discovered that Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof wrote at least two additional manifestos prior to claiming the lives of nine Emmanuel AME members when he suddenly opened fire during a bible study session last June.
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Jury selection for Dylann Roof ‘s trial is set to begin this November.
Rather than adopting such convictions “through his personal associations or experiences with white supremacist groups or individuals or others”, prosecutors said these viewpoints were self-taught from material found online and elsewhere.
Investigators found two handwritten manifestos espousing white supremacy in the auto and jail cell of a white man accused of killing nine black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church previous year, according to a court document filed on Monday.
The information was filed Monday as part of a listing of more than a dozen expert witnesses that prosecutors intend to call in Dylann Roof’s federal death penalty trial later this year.
Roof was indicted on federal hate crime charges that he attacked the parishioners “because of their race and in order to interfere with their exercise of their religion”, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
“The evidence in this case relating to defendant Roof, including his readings, writings, statements, use of symbols and other expressions, as well as his criminal and related actions, are consistent with the adoption of numerous central tenets of white supremacy extremist ideology, including the belief that violent action is necessary to further the goal of white supremacy over non-white peoples, particularly African Americans”, the court filing states.
Attorneys for Roof declined to comment on the new filing.
After the attack on the church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, officials found an online manifesto linked to Roof that showed a deep-seated hatred toward blacks.
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Prosecutors said they believe that the young man, from Columbia, South Carolina, had become more radicalised in the months ahead of the attack. During this period, Roof traveled to the Emanuel AME Church, as well as areas connected to the Confederacy, according to the filing, submitted by the office of Beth Drake, the acting USA attorney for the District of SC. His attorneys have argued that prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case would be ‘unconstitutional.’ He will face a total of 33 federal charges including nine counts of using a firearm to commit murder and 24 counts of civil rights violations.
