SC high court upholds death penalty for torture

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a childhood friend during 36 hours of torture.

The state’s high court ruled Monday that the conviction and death sentence of William Dickerson were warranted.

Dickerson was convicted in 2009 of first degree murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual conduct in the 2006 death of 29-year-old Gerard Roper in a Charleston County apartment.

Authorities said Dickerson wrongly thought Roper was the man in a video having sex with his girlfriend.

Evidence shows no single injury killed Roper. He received more than 200 wounds. He was chocked, tied up, sodomized with a gun and broomstick, burned, and repeatedly hit.

Prosecutors say Dickerson called his girlfriend and others during the torture to discuss what he was doing.