Dylann Roof's Defense Rests
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He did so without offering a defense; as if there really were some defensible position from which to approach such a thing. About all that remains are the deliberations regarding his fate and an optional closing statement which may or may not happen.
Actions and consequences are now heaped upon him like a ton of bricks and I can't really say what I would prefer ... life in prison or death. I get the impression he could cope with life in prison a lot better than I could. I'm pretty old and I'm simply too pretty to go to prison and assume the role of some bad man's concubine.
He is much younger, has contingents of both proponents and opponents with which to either take comfort or contend — not to mention the timeframe which may be long but will either end naturally or prematurely.
In all my ponderings of this horror I still cannot fathom a person going into a place of worship and murdering those who welcomed him into their fold ... as I told my mother recently, if you are "at church" or "going to church" or "coming from church" there should be some protective aura guarding worshipers from such insufferable tragic endings.
Rest assured, that in all those incidents for rage I have experienced over the years there has never been any danger to churchgoers on my part. It simply is not within my makeup to hurt someone treating you like the decent individual you may or may not be.
This kid may or may not get what he deserves, but one thing is for sure. I will always wish that he had not gone to the dark place in human behavior he traveled while at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston South Carolina the evening of June 17, 2015.
The only rage I feel is not being able to turn back time. The only pain I feel is for the victims of this terrible crime. Young Mr Roof is left to suffer those consequences of actions the gravity of which he may not be able to fully grasp.
One thing is certain. He did not attain his goal in all the horror he brought upon a group of church congregants who welcomed him into their midst.