A Federal Jury Has Sentenced Dylann Roof to Death

The jury deliberated for less than three hours.

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Update, 5:10 p.m.: Dylann Roof is the first person in the United States to get the death penalty for committing federal hate crimes.

Update, 4:52 p.m.: The jury sentenced Roof to death for the Charleston church shooting.

On December 15, Dylann Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crimes related to the June 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre, during which Roof murdered nine people in a historically black church. The same jury that convicted Roof then took only three hours today to decide whether he will face life in prison or the death penalty.

The court is waiting for the jury to deliver its verdict. This is a developing story. We’ll update it as news comes in.

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We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

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Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

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