The subject of Dylann Roof comes up every now and then in this — part of that area he once roamed freely. I keep wondering if the kid ever regrets not thinking through his actions a bit better prior to taking out a bunch of people who took him into their fold and shared their religious studies with him.
I do know that I could have never drawn down on those who accepted me in the manner they accepted him nor harmed them in any way ... and I keep wondering if a conscience ever surfaces in the boy.
For at 28 I was an idiot just like him only beginning to realize the folly of my ways. I am just happy I never pushed my luck so far that my parents could not rescue me. There are dark places a manchild can go from which nothing good ever comes. Dylann Roof has arrived in this place. While I am sorry for his victims, I am likewise sorry for him; his own worst enemy.
There by the grace of God go I. I have never entertained committing those actions he hesitated to do, yet carried out anyway after noting "how nice" everyone was. However, I was once every bit the idiotic young white man that Dylann Roof was and by all indications remains.
SCOTUS has rejected an appeal from Dylann Roof, who challenged his death sentence and conviction in the 2015 racially motivated slayings of nine members of a South Carolina congregation. He had requested that the court decide how to handle disputes over mental illness related evidence between capital defendants and their attorneys. There was no comment by the justices in turning down his appeal. A panel of appellate judges had previously upheld his conviction and death sentence.
Roof shot congregants at a Bible study session at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina with a weapon his father gave him for his birthday. He is 28 and remains on federal death row at a maximum security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has other avenues of appeal remaining.