Self-declared white supremacist Dylann Roof was found guilty Thursday of killing nine black worshipers in a South Carolina church.
It took a 12-person panel a little over two hours to convict Roof on all 33 counts, including the 24 that fall under federal hate crime statutes.
Now the jury will decide whether Roof spends the rest of his life in prison — or dies for last year’s massacre at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Eighteen of the counts he was convicted on carry the death penalty.
The jury will break for Christmas and return after the holidays on Jan. 3 to begin debating the 22-year-old convicted mass killer’s fate.
The verdict came after prosecutors and the defense made their final arguments.
Roof, prosecutor Nathan Williams said, was “a man of intense hatred.”
“These nine people exemplified a goodness that was greater that his message of hate,” Williams said.
