Feds want to know how Dylann Roof’s defense team will argue against death penalty

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Federal prosecutors want Dylann Roof’s defense team to disclose a list of mitigating factors they will use in the sentencing phase of the trial to stave off the death penalty for the 22-year-old Eastover man accused of killing nine people in a downtown Charleston church.

Citing the federal cases against Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Gary Lee Sampson, prosecutors said knowing how the defense will argue against a death sentence will mean “a meaningful opportunity to exercise its statutory right to rebut any information the defendant seeks to present.”

Roof’s attorney David Bruck argued during the Boston bomber trial that Tsarnaev’s acts did not warrant a death sentence because of his age, the influence of his older brother, and an unstable home life stemming from his father’s disabilities, among other things.

It’s possible Bruck will use many of the same mitigating factors while trying to convince a jury that Roof does not deserve to be put to death.

Roof is a young, uneducated man from a rural area outside of Columbia who aligned himself,according to a manifesto found online, with the Council of Conservative Citizens, one of the longest running white supremacy groups in the U.S. His parents are no longer together and he had fallen into a life of drug abuse.

Prosecutors want the list of mitigating factors released to them by Oct. 1, a little more than a month before the trial is slated to begin in downtown Charleston.

In a separate filing, Roof’s attorneys sought to outline how the sides will handle a mental health evaluation. The filing comes after prosecutors and defense attorneys could not settle on several issues, including when the defense has to disclose its mental issues expert, type to testing done, and whether attorneys can be present.

Roof faces nearly three dozen federal charges for the shooting at Emanuel AME on June 17, 2015. He also faces nine murder and three attempted murder charges for the shooting in state court.

Prosecutors in both courts are seeking the death penalty.

Previous filings from Bruck have sought a local jury from the Charleston and Beaufort regions, and a bench trial. The court rejected the motion for a bench trial but the issue of a local jury has yet to be decided.

Upwards of 1,500 people will be called as potential jurors in the federal trial.

Roof’s federal trial is slated to start first, on Nov. 7, with final jury selections. His state trial is slated to begin on Jan. 17.