Charleston shooter denies mental illness: 'There's nothing wrong with me psychologically'

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published 4 January 2017

In an opening statement to jurors Wednesday morning, convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof refused to apologize or offer an excuse for the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that left nine dead. "The point is, I'm not going to lie to you. There's nothing wrong with me psychologically," said Roof, 22, who is representing himself in the sentencing phase of his trial. Roof did not plead for his life to be spared from the death penalty, and has said he doesn't plan to present any evidence or witnesses during the trial.

Roof's statement Wednesday echoed an entry from his journal, seized in August 2015, in which Roof wrote he "would like to make it crystal clear" he had no regrets nor was he sorry for murdering nine black churchgoers at a Bible study. "I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed," Roof wrote. He later added, "I have shed a tear of self-pity for myself ... that I had to do what I did in the first place."