Dylann Roof Found Competent To Stand Trial

The Associated Press reports:

A judge has ruled that Dylann Roof is competent to stand trial for the killing of nine black worshipers at a South Carolina church. Judge Richard Gergel made the ruling Friday after a two-day hearing behind closed doors earlier this week. The hearing was needed after Roof’s attorneys questioned earlier this month whether he could help them on the eve of jury selection in his death penalty trial.

Gergel says jury selection will begin Monday. Gergel sealed his reasons for finding Roof competent, saying that information could keep him from having a fair trial. The 22-year-old white man is charged in federal court with hate crime, obstruction of religion and other counts for the deadly June 2015 attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Before the killings Roof had researched the white supremacist group once addressed by hate group leader Tony Perkins.