The young white man accused of shooting dead nine black parishioners and injuring three others at a church in South Carolina has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial in one of America’s highest-profile hate crime cases. Dylann Roof, 22, faces the death penalty for a deadly assault in the historic Mother Emanuel AME church during an evening Bible study class in June 2015. Lawyers for Roof had questioned whether he was mentally fit to stand trial, leading to a two-day closed door hearing that ultimately delayed the case for two weeks. On Friday, following sealed evidence from a court-appointed psychiatrist who interviewed the accused murderer in prison, Richard Gergel, a federal judge, said in a sealed judgement that Roof was competent to stand trial. Roof is also charged with nine counts of murder by state prosecutors who are also seeking the death penalty in a trial due to begin in January 2017.

Source: The Guardian November 25, 2016 15:09 UTC