Accused Emanuel AME Shooter and Friend to Appear in Federal Court Next Month

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man accused of killing nine people in a Charleston church, and his friend who investigators say knew of the planned attack will appear in federal court next month.

District Judge Richard M. Gergel scheduled a bar meeting for 10 a.m. on April 5 at the courthouse in downtown Charleston. Gergel issued the schedule on Monday morning, and currently neither Roof nor Joey Meek have filed motions to not be present at the hearing.

While state prosecutors have said they are seeking the death penalty for Roof, who is accused of killing parishioners of Emanuel AME Church during a Bible study, federal prosecutors are still waiting on a Department of Justice panel to decide if the federal government will also seek the death penalty for nearly three dozen hate crime charges in connection to the shooting.

Currently, Roof’s state trial is set to begin on July 11.

The scheduled bar meeting comes roughly nine months after the June 17 shooting. Federal prosecutors said in previous hearings they thought the justice department would render a decision on the death penalty in that time.

It’s not clear from the filing what attorneys and Gergel will discuss on April 5, or if the hearing was requested by federal prosecutors.

The decision from the DOJ panel is a big part of the delay in scheduling Roof’s federal trial. Roof’s attorneys said their client was prepared to plead guilty if the death penalty was not a possible sentence.

There are also delays in Meek’s trial as his attorneys go through discovery in the misprision of a felony case being built against him. Investigators say Meek lied to them and did not alert police after learning of Roof’s plan.

Meanwhile, jury questionnaires are spreading across the state for the two men. Earlier this month, attorneys in the Meek case were supposed to start sorting through the jury surveys to whittle down the pool before selection begins ahead of the trial.

In Roof’s case, approximately 600 jury surveys are going to residents across the state. There could be a court hearing for attorneys to cut down on the number of potential jurors days before the first anniversary of the shooting. Final jury selection will take three days starting on June 28.