Jury convicts Dylann Roof for Charleston church massacre

Dylann Roof.
(Image credit: Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images)

Dylann Storm Roof, the self-described white supremacist accused of murdering nine people at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, has been found guilty on all 33 counts brought against him. Roof, 22, faced multiple charges stemming from the June 2015 attack, including hate crimes, religious obstruction crimes, and firearms crimes, The Daily Beast reports. The jury reportedly took just two hours to reach their conclusions.

Roof, will face either life imprisonment or the death penalty, to be decided at a separate trial with the same jurors in January. During testimony, one of the three survivors of the massacre described Roof as "evil, evil, evil as can be," although Roof's lawyer asked in closing arguments Thursday morning for the court to "look past the surface of things."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.