The same jury that convicted Dylann Roof in the 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME church reached a unanimous verdict on his sentence: death. Roof looked down silently as the panel announced its decision in U.S. District Court in Charleston, S.C. late Tuesday afternoon.

After the jury left the courtroom, Roof asked Judge Richard Gergel for new lawyers. Gergel told Roof he could make that argument at his formal sentencing hearing Wednesday morning.

Insisting on representing himself in the sentencing phase of his trial, Roof’s court-appointed defense team, which included renowned lawyer and capital punishment opponent David Bruck, was largely sidelined.

"We want to express our sympathy to all of the families who were so grievously hurt by Dylann Roof's actions," Roof's defense said in a statement. "Today's sentencing decision means that this case will not be over for a very long time. We are sorry that, despite our best efforts, the legal proceedings have shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy."

Roof's family said in a statement they will "continue to pray for the Emanuel AME families and the Charleston community."

"We will struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people," the statement read. "We wish to express the grief we feel for the victims of his crimes, and our sympathy to the many families he has hurt."

Earlier in the day, Roof delivered his own closing argument, in which the white supremacist denied that he was filled with hatred.

“Wouldn’t it be fair to say that the prosecution hates me because they’re trying to give me the death penalty?” Roof asked rhetorically. “Anyone who hates anything, in their mind has a good reason for it. And sometimes that’s because they’ve been misled and sometimes it isn’t. But I would say that in this case the prosecution, along with anyone else who hates me, are the ones who have been misled.”

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Roof concluded his closing argument after only five minutes.

“That’s all,” he said.

The brevity of Roof’s statement stood in stark contrast to the prosecution’s closing argument, which lasted for two hours.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson reminded jurors how the nine victims at “Mother Emanuel” Church had welcomed Roof, a stranger who had shown up at their Wednesday evening Bible study.

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“The defendant had come not to learn, not to receive the Word, but he came with a hateful heart and a Glock 45,” Richardson said.

Richardson mentioned all of the victims by name, describing their importance to the community and their families, and the terrible loss caused by their untimely deaths. He contrasted these “particularly good people” with the horrific nature of Roof’s crimes, his racist views and “his belief in Hitler as a saint, as an icon, as someone to be emulated.”

The prosecution showed the jury photos of Roof with his now familiar blank stare, pointing a pistol at the camera during target practice.

“He also chose to videotape himself doing it so that he could see the very last images that these victims would see,” Richardson said. “He wanted to see what he would look like as he stood over them.”

Inside the courtroom, Roof looked straight forward, displaying no obvious emotion as the prosecution showed the jury graphic photos of the deceased victims’ bodies lying on the bloodstained floor of their church meeting room.

Richardson then went on to cite Roof’s apparent lack of remorse for the crimes.

He quoted from a journal removed from the defendant’s jail cell back in August of 2015 in which Roof writes, “I do not regret what I did. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed.”

The prosecutor reminded jurors that even during this trial, Roof had entered the courtroom wearing hand drawn racist symbols on his shoes.

“Unrepentant, no remorse,” Richardson added.

At the conclusion of his closing argument, Richardson urged jurors, “Sentence this defendant to death for killing Clementa Pinckney.”

He repeated the phrase eight more times to add the names of each victim.

The same panel of three black jurors and nine whites that convicted Roof back in December once again sided with the prosecution, unanimously calling for the ultimate punishment.

Fox News’ Chip Bell and Multimedia Reporter Terace Garnier contributed to this report from Charleston.</s>CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CNN) -- Twelve federal jurors said Tuesday that Dylann Roof, the man who killed nine people in a 2015 massacre at a historically black Charleston, South Carolina, church, should be put to death.

The 10 women and two men recommended the death penalty for all 18 counts that carried that as a possible sentence.

Judge Richard Gergel will formally sentence Roof on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. ET. Roof, who represented himself during the penalty phase, told Gergel he wanted to file a motion for new lawyers. Gergel said Roof can argue that on Wednesday but he is not inclined to let that happen.

Before the jury deliberated his fate for three hours, Roof told the jury he still feels he had no choice but to kill nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.

"In my confession to the FBI I told them that I had to do it, and obviously that's not really true. ... I didn't have to do anything," Roof said as he made his own five-minute closing argument in the penalty phase of his federal trial. "But what I meant when I said that was, I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it."

But he also suggested he'd like to be spared.

"From what I've been told, I have a right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I'm not sure what good that will do anyway," Roof said. "But what I will say is only one of you has to disagree with the other jurors."

His statement followed a prosecutor's impassioned, two-hour argument in a Charleston courtroom urging jurors to give Roof the death penalty instead of their other option, life in prison without possibility of parole.

Jurors convicted Roof, an avowed white supremacist, last month of federal murder and hate crimes charges.

The prosecution and defense rested in the penalty phase on Monday, bringing to a close days of heartbreaking testimony from family and friends of victims who were killed.

Prosecutors argued that he's a calculating killer who deserves the death penalty because of his motive, his lack of remorse and the shooting's impact on the victims' families.

In his closing argument Tuesday morning, Assistant US Attorney Jay Richardson described the lives of all nine victims, cited Roof's "racist hatred" and reminded the jurors of the testimony and evidence that convicted him:
• Roof was at the church three previous times to scout his target.
• He sat with the group for 40 minutes before shooting.
• He pulled the trigger "more than 75 times ... reloading seven times" as he stood over his victims, shooting them repeatedly.
• He "showed not one ounce of remorse."
• Richardson referred to what Roof had told investigators in a recorded interview: That "somebody had to do it," in part because "black people are killing white people every day."

"Those are the words of an extraordinary racist who believed it was justified," Richardson said.

Earlier in the penalty phase, prosecutors presented evidence that included chilling writings from a jailhouse journal Roof wrote after the attack.

"I would like to make it crystal clear. I do not regret what I did," Roof wrote in the journal. "I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed."

Friends and relatives of victims slain in the shooting gave emotional testimony in court before Tuesday, some of them sobbing on the stand.

As they made their case, prosecutors played haunting recordings of the victims preaching, praying and singing.

Roof, 22, did not question witnesses, but filed several motions objecting that their testimony had been too emotional.

In his brief opening statement last week, he told jurors that he doesn't have mental health problems.

Roof is also set to be tried on state murder charges, and prosecutors have said they'll also seek the death penalty in that case.

Serial killer Gary Lee Sampson was the last person to get a federal death sentence. He's one of 63 federal prisoners, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, awaiting execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit.

Only three federal inmates have been executed in the United States since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 after a 16-year moratorium:
• Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001, six years after he killed 168 people.
• Juan Raul Garza on June 19, 2001, eight years after he was convicted of running a marijuana drug ring and killing three people.
• Louis Jones on March 18, 2003, eight years after he kidnapped and murdered 19-year-old Army Pvt. Tracie McBride.</s>Dylann Roof speaks in the courtroom in Charleston on Jan. 10. Robert Maniscalco

Roof, 22, who represented himself in the penalty phase, did very little to persuade the panel to spare his life. He declined to present any witnesses or evidence, blocked standby defense lawyers’ attempts to raise questions about his mental health, and suggested in his

closing statement that arguing for life in prison wasn’t worth the effort.

As the verdicts were announced, Roof stared straight ahead, or looked down. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel scheduled formal sentencing for Wednesday morning. Roof then asked for a lawyer to help file a motion for a new trial, which Gergel said he’d consider before the sentencing, but added that the request didn’t seem justified.

Charleston Massacre Trial Concludes With Dylann Roof Saying ‘I Had to Do It’

Melvin Graham, whose sister, Cynthia Graham Hurd, was among the nine killed, said after the verdict that his family had received justice. But he added, “This is a very hollow victory because my sister is still gone.”

Graham said he did not argue with the death penalty for Roof.

“He just took them away from us because he wanted to. He decided the day, the hour, the moment, my sister was going to die. And now someone is going to do that for him,” Graham

Graham also argued that if Roof had a Muslim sounding name, he would have been called a radicalized terrorist. “He was radicalized, but not in the way some people think. He radicalized himself to think he had to act on it just like any other terrorist.”

Roof’s relatives said in a statement that they would “always love Dylann” but would “struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people.”

His defense lawyers, sidelined for much of the trial, said the sentenced meant that “this case will not be over for a very long time.” They also expressed dismay that the trial “shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy.”

Roof now becomes the 63rd person on federal death row, and the first to be put there since Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015.

Nevertheless, it will likely be years before he is put to death; the federal government has put executions on hold out of concerns about lethal injection drugs, and appeals could put off the date even further. The last federal execution took place in 2003.

And Roof still faces a second trial, by the state of South Carolina, where he also faces the death penalty. The date of that trial has not been determined.

From the start of the trial, Roof’s guilt was hardly in doubt.

It took the 12-person jury a little over two hours

to convict Roof last month on all 33 counts, including two dozen that fall under federal hate crime statutes.

During that phase of the trial, defense lawyer David Bruck put no witnesses on the stand and raised no objections when prosecutors played Roof’s videotaped confession to the FBI, which was made following his arrest. In it, Roof admitted he was guilty and that the motive was to spark a race war. He told the FBI men he was surprised he was able to kill as many people as he did with his .45-caliber Glock pistol.

Witnesses included two women who survived the shooting, Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, who testified that

Roof told her, “I’m going to leave you here to tell the story.”

Charleston Massacre Survivor Says Suspect Dylann Roof Opened Fire as Victims Stood to Pray

For the penalty phase, a judge allowed Roof to represent himself, but only after conducting a competency hearing that remains under seal. Roof told the jury that “there is nothing wrong with me psychologically,” and that he chose to mount his own defense to prevent lawyers from presenting mental health evaluations.

Police tape surrounds the parking lot behind the AME Emanuel Church as FBI forensic experts work the crime scene, in Charleston, South Carolina on June 19 2015. Stephen B. Morton / AP

Prosecutors focused on the lives of the victims — the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; the Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; and Tywanza Sanders, 26. The government used photos, video, audio recordings and testimony from loved ones to explore the killings’ aftermath.

Also key to the government’s case was was showing Roof’s planning for the June 17, 2015 massacre, in which Roof targeted a group of worshipers who’d invited him to study the Bible with them on a Wednesday night, waiting nearly an hour before opening fire.

The government has also stressed Roof’s apparent lack of remorse afterward, a contrast with the

expressions of forgiveness from some victims’ relatives at Roof’s first court appearance after the attack.

At trial, prosecutors shared with the jury portions of Roof’s jailhouse journal, dated six weeks after the killings.

“I do not regret what I did,” Roof wrote. “I am not sorry.”

After the verdict, U.S. Sen Tim Scott of South Carolina said the jury had made the right decision, and that it would mark “a pivotal moment” in the victims’ families’ “road toward some sort of closure.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement that “no verdict can bring back the nine we lost that day at Mother Emanuel. And no verdict can heal the wounds of the five church members who survived the attack or the souls of those who lost loved ones to Roof’s callous hand. But we hope that the completion of the prosecution provides the people of Charleston — and the people of our nation — with a measure of closure.”</s>Dylann Roof -- the man convicted for the racially motivated mass murder in a South Carolina church -- was just sentenced to death.

Dylann showed little regret during his trial for murdering 9 black worshipers during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church back in June of 2015. He walked into the church and shot the churchgoers in cold blood.

Likewise, he showed zero remorse Tuesday in court ... where he represented himself and told jurors he felt like he had to kill his victims, and "I still feel like I have to do it."

The 12 person jury deliberated just 3 hours before announcing the sentencing in which Dylann repped himself.</s>Dylann Roof, found guilty of killing nine people in a 2015 shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was sentenced to death Tuesday (10 January) by 12 federal jurors. The group of 10 women and two men recommended the death penalty for all 18 counts.

Roof will formally be sentenced by Judge Richard Gergel on Wednesday (11 January) at 9.30am EST (2.30pm GMT).

In his closing statement, Roof told jurors that he felt he had no choice when he shot the church goers. "In my confession to the FBI I told them that I had to do it, and obviously that's not really true ... I didn't have to do anything," Roof said during his five-minute remarks. "But what I meant when I said that was, I felt like I had to do it, and I still do feel like I had to do it."

According to CNN, the 22-year-old also suggested he would like to be spared the death penalty. "From what I've been told, I have a right to ask you to give me a life sentence, but I'm not sure what good that will do anyway," he said. "But what I will say is only one of you has to disagree with the other jurors."

Roof killed nine during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on 17 June 2015. The victims were identified as the Rev Clementa Pinckney, Susie Jackson, Tywanza Sanders, Cynthia Hurd, Ethel Lee Lance, the Rev DePayne Middleton Doctor, the Rev Daniel L Simmons Sr, the Rev Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson.

According to The New York Times, as he left the church, Roof told one of the three survivors, Polly Sheppard, that he was sparing her so she could "tell the story". When he did not encounter police outside of the church, Roof drove north through back roads. He was arrested by police in Shelby, North Carolina the following morning.

During his trial, Roof insisted he did not have any psychological incapacity, refused to call witnesses, presented no evidence and largely sidelined his court-appointed lawyers.

Jurors found Roof guilty of 33 counts for the deadly attack at Emanuel AME Church in December. After about three hours of deliberation in the penalty phase of the case, the jury returned with their unanimous verdict.</s>A jury is expected to decide as early as Tuesday whether Dylann Roof, the man who killed nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., will become the first person sentenced to death for federal hate crimes.

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Dylann Roof went to a historic black church in Charleston with a gun and a “hateful heart” and should be put to death for opening fire on people who had gathered for Bible study, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told jurors who will soon begin deliberating Roof’s fate that the 12 people at Emanuel AME on the night of June 17, 2015, were God fearing church members who opened the door for a white stranger with a smile. Nine of them were slain and three survived.

“They welcomed a 13th person that night ... with a kind word, a Bible, a handout and a chair,” Richardson said during his closing argument at Roof’s sentencing. “He had come with a hateful heart and a Glock .45.”

Richardson’s argument is expected to be about two hours long. He reminded jurors about each one of the victims and the bloody crime scene that Roof, a 22-year-old white man, left behind in the church’s lower level. Roof waited until the final prayer — when everyone’s eyes were closed — to begin firing. He stood over some of the fallen, shooting them again as they lay on the floor, the prosecutor said.

The jury, which convicted Roof last month of 33 federal crimes, will decide whether Roof should be sentenced to execution or life in prison.</s>Dylann Roof, 22, has been sentenced to death for killing nine black churchgoers during a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina.

The jury’s decision had to be unanimous to sentence Roof to death.

The jury began deliberating Roof’s fate earlier today, after Roof told the jury in a closing statement, “I still feel like I had to do it.”

The verdict comes at the end of the federal death penalty case in which he was convicted of hate crimes resulting in death among other charges. Roof also faces a state trial in which he may again face the death penalty.

Roof’s family said in a statement, “We will always love Dylann. We will struggle as long as we live to understand why he committed this horrible attack, which caused so much pain to so many good people. We wish to express the grief we feel for the victims of his crimes, and our sympathy to the many families he has hurt. We continue to pray for the Emanuel AME families and the Charleston community.”

Roof’s defense in a statement that the “sentencing decision means that this case will not be over for a very long time. We are sorry that, despite our best efforts, the legal proceedings have shed so little light on the reasons for this tragedy.”

The defense added that they express sympathy “to all of the families who were so grievously hurt by Dylann Roof’s actions.”

Roof said today in his closing argument, according to ABC affiliate WCIV, “I think that it’s safe to say that no one in their right mind wants to go into a church and kill people.”

He added, “In my confession to the FBI, I told them that I had to do it.

“But obviously that’s not really true. I didn’t have to do it, and no one made me do it,” Roof said, according to WCIV. “What I meant when I said that was I felt like I had to do it, and I still feel like I had to do it.”

In the government’s closing argument today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson laid out the government’s argument for the death penalty.

He recounted to the jury how on the night of the June 17, 2015, shooting, the unsuspecting victims, who had gathered for a Bible study, welcomed Roof, a stranger, to join them. Roof then opened fire on them; the victims were vulnerable targets with their eyes closed in prayer, Richardson said, according to WCIV.

Richardson said that before the killings, Roof’s racist hatred built up for years.

Roof scouted the Emanuel AME Church months before, calling and visiting, Richardson said. After buying the murder weapon with his birthday money, Roof bought enough magazines to have 88 rounds, which had racist symbolism, Richardson said: 88 is an abbreviation for the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler,” as “h” is the eighth letter in the alphabet.

Besides a website where he shared his message of “hate,” Richardson said, Roof mentally and physically prepared for the shooting; he took photos with his gun pointed at the camera and recorded video of his target practice.

“He chose to videotape himself doing it so he could see the very last images these victims would see,” Richardson said, according to WCIV. “He wanted to see what he would look like as he stood over them, executing them.”

“This is calculated. Misguided but thoughtful,” Richardson said, according to WCIV. “He spent years acquiring this deep hatred, this deep hatred we would all like to believe could not exist in someone. But it does. You’ve seen it.”

Richardson said that after Roof left the scene of the shooting, he “fully understood the horrific nature” of his crime. Roof fled on back roads to North Carolina, knowing police were looking for him, and he avoided using his debit card, knowing it could be tracked, Richardson said.

While Roof expressed sorrow to his parents and pity for himself, he didn’t shed a tear for the people he killed, Richardson said. Roof showed multiple times that he didn’t have remorse, according to Richardson, from his jailhouse manifesto with racist language to the shoes he wore in court during this trial that had racist symbols on them.

Roof was willing to plead guilty if the government would take the death penalty off the table, which Richardson said shows “that he wants to spend his life in prison, listening to the radio, and writing more racist filth,” WCIV reported.</s>CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP): The Latest on the federal sentencing trial of convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof (all times local):

A federal jury has sentenced Dylann Roof to death for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack in 2015.

Roof, who is white, faced either life in prison or execution for the slayings on June 17, 2015. The Justice Department says he is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes.

The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations.

Roof was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During sentencing, he represented himself and told jurors he didn’t have a mental illness. But he didn’t offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared.

Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings.

A jury deliberating whether Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof should be sentenced to life in prison or death has reached a verdict.

It will be announced soon. Roof was convicted of killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack on June 17, 2015.

The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations.

Roof, who is white, was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During the penalty phase of the trial, he represented himself and told jurors he didn’t have a mental illness, but he didn’t offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared.

In a lengthy confession, Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings.

Jurors deliberating whether Dylann Roof should get death or life in prison have raised several questions about his potential imprisonment.

The jury on Tuesday asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel for clarification on some of the mitigating factors they’re being asked to consider, including if Roof could safely be confined if he were sentenced to life in prison. The judge told jurors to re-read the instructions he provided them to figure out what that means.

Jurors also asked to re-watch a speech by the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was one of the nine people Roof killed during a Bible study in 2015.

So far, jurors have deliberated Roof’s sentence more than two hours.

Roof didn’t ask jurors to spare his life and told them he still feels he “had to” kill the nine Bible study attendees at Emanuel AME Church.

Jurors have begun deliberating over whether Dylann Roof is sentenced to death or life in prison for his crimes.

Jurors were sent to the jury room Tuesday afternoon to begin considering the case after U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel reviewed the charge that governs jurors’ discussions.

Prosecutors focused on the gruesome nature of the slayings of nine black parishioners attending a June 2015 Bible study at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson also reminded jurors about the days of emotional testimony they’ve heard from relatives of all nine people killed.

Roof gave a brief closing of his own, telling jurors he knew he could ask them to spare his life but wasn’t sure “what good that would do.”

Roof is his own attorney in these proceedings and also told jurors he knew only one of them had to disagree with the others in order for him to avoid a death sentence.

Dylann Roof is telling jurors at his sentencing that he has the right to ask them for life in prison instead of execution but he says he is not sure “what good that would do anyway.”

Roof did not ask the jury to spare his life for killing nine black church members in June 2015. He gave a closing argument of about five minutes on Tuesday. At one point, he said he felt like he had to commit the slayings, and “I still feel like I had to do it.”

Prosecutors say he should be executed because he had a “hateful heart” and the young white man targeted the black church in a racially motivated attack.

Prosecutors have made their final case as to why they believe Dylann Roof should die for slaying nine people during a Bible study.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told jurors on Tuesday that Roof’s crimes more than meet the standards they’ll consider for a possible death sentence.

Richardson says the way Roof mercilessly gunned down the black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church, coupled with his lack of remorse, mean he should receive the harshest sentence available.

Richardson also reviewed emotional testimony jurors have heard about each of the victims and the voids created by their deaths.

Roof is representing himself. The government will have the opportunity to give a rebuttal to anything Roof says, if he gives a closing argument.

Prosecutors are explaining why they think Dylann Roof deserves to be executed for his crimes.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson is laying out the standards that must be met for a death sentence, including that the defendant must be at least 18 years old and intentionally committed the crimes. There are also statutory aggravating factors, including killing “vulnerable” victims.

Richardson is giving the federal government’s closing argument during sentencing for Roof for the June 2015 slaughter at Emanuel AME Church. The prosecutor has reviewed testimony they heard about each of the nine victims, as well as Roof’s preparations for the shootings and the entrenchment of his hatred toward black people.

Roof is representing himself and has the chance to give a closing of his own after prosecutors finish.

Jurors are getting a review of the emotional testimony given by friends and relatives of the nine people gunned down by Dylann Roof during a June 2015 Bible study.

One by one, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson is reminding the jury of the voids created by the deaths of the people Roof killed. Relatives of the slain gave four days of testimony about what each person meant to them and how a future without them seems bleak.

Richardson is giving the government’s closing argument in its pursuit of the death penalty against Roof. Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations later Tuesday.

Prosecutors have begun closing arguments in Dylann Roof’s sentencing by reminding jurors about the bloody crime at a Charleston church where Roof killed nine people.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson recalled testimony from one of the massacre’s survivors, who said Roof said he’d leave her alive so she could tell the world what happened.

He reminded jurors of how survivor Felicia Sanders saw her son Tywanza slain as he lay next to her, his blood seeping out onto the floor.

Richardson has said he’ll likely take around two hours to close out the government’s argument as to why Roof should be executed for his crimes in 2015. Jurors are expected to begin their deliberations later Tuesday.

Prosecutors say they will take about two hours to close out their argument as to why Dylann Roof should be executed for slaying nine people at a South Carolina church.

Closing arguments are being made Tuesday morning in Roof’s federal sentencing trial. This is the last chance for prosecutors to make their case as to why he should be sentenced to death over life in prison.

Federal prosecutors wrapped up their case Monday with relatives of the youngest victim to die in the June 2015 attack on a Bible study group at Emanuel AME Church. Roof is representing himself and introduced no witnesses or testimony in his own defense.

Jurors will get the case after closings and their charge instructions.

The fate of convicted church shooter Dylann Roof will soon rest in the hands of the 12 jurors considering sentencing in his federal trial.

The same jury last month convicted Roof of 33 federal crimes, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion, in his June 2015 assault on a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church that left nine black parishioners dead.

After a holiday break, jurors returned last week to court, where prosecutors laid out their case for why Roof should be executed.

Jurors will get the case after closing arguments Tuesday morning from prosecutors and perhaps Roof, who has represented himself during sentencing but has put up no fight for his life. The 22-year-old didn’t call any witnesses, present any evidence and so far has not asked for mercy.</s>Charleston, SC (WLTX) – A federal jury sentenced has convicted killer and white supremacist Dylann Roof to death for murdering nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours Tuesday before coming to a decision. A judge will formally affirm the decision at a hearing Wednesday morning. During that time, the families of the victims will be allowed to address Roof directly.

In a statement emailed to reporters after the announcement, Roof's relatives said they will "struggle as long as we live" to understand why he killed the victims. The relatives, who have not returned to court since the start of his trial, "express the grief we feel for the victims of his crimes, and our sympathy to the many families he has hurt."

Hours earlier, Roof , dressed in a blue sweater, did not ask for forgiveness in his final statement to the jury, and did not ask the jury to give him the life sentence for his mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME back in June of 2015.

“I felt like I had to do it and I still feel like I had to do it,” Roof told the jury of the church shooting he carried out.

He also said during his short closing statement that the prosecution and anyone else who hated him was “misled.”

“They don’t know what real hatred looks like,” Roof said to the jury.

Roof also told the jury that he’s been told it was his right to ask for the life sentence but said he didn’t know what good that would do.

Prosecutor Jay Richardson passionately expressed to the jury for about two hours why Roof deserved the death penalty.

“You’ve heard how after they started that Bible study, they welcomed a 13th person that night,” Richardson said.

Richardson started off by telling the jury how the worshippers were studying Mark 4 the night of June 17, 2015.

Richardson says Roof “walked methodically around the room executing one after the other.”

Loved ones shed tears as the prosecution showed the late victims in pools of blood at the church.

Richardson also reviewed Roof’s racist writings and reiterated how Roof had said he needed to take action since Blacks were “raping white women and taking over the world.”

Richardson told the jury Roof had planned and prepared for the mass shooting by doing things like buying a gun, having target practice in his backyard, researching and studying racist websites and driving to the church several times in the months leading up to the shooting.

“He thought, prepared and ultimately decided to go through with it,” Richardson told the jury.

Richardson also said Roof’s intentions was to agitate race relations.

“His plan was to agitate, incite and create a white future,” Richardson explained of Roof’s desires. “Not one ounce of remorse.”

Richardson reminded the jury how Roof said he had not shed a single tear for the victim.

“People he believed were subhuman that were less than human,” Richardson said of Roof’s regard for the victims. “No remorse for that pain that he’s caused.”

“You also know how extremely good these people were,” Richardson said. “You know who they were and how they lived their lives.”

Richardson said all that Roof has done justifies the death penalty and should die for killing the nine victims.

“He wants to spend his life in prison, listening to the radio, writing more racist filth,” the prosecutor said. “His hatred is not the passionate anger hatred, it’s calculated, it’s cold, but it is hatred just the same.”

“The loss of his freedom was worth it,” Richardson said of Roof’s beliefs. “He continues to believe that he has done the right thing.”

One by one, Richardson described each victim’s life over pictures.

“These are the pillars of that church and the pillars of the community,” the prosecutor said during his closing statement. “A loss felt deeply far beyond the walls of that church.”

During the course of the trial, the relatives and friends of Clementa Pinckney, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Daniel Simmons Sr., and DePayne Middleton-Doctor all shared the great loss they’ve felt without their loved ones.

The jury had convicted Roof of 33 counts for the church slayings in December.

The Associated Press contributed to this report</s>A federal jury has sentenced Dylann Roof to death for killing nine black church members in a racially motivated attack in 2015.

Roof, who is white, faced either life in prison or execution for the slayings on June 17, 2015. The Justice Department says he is the first person to get the death penalty for federal hate crimes.

The jury reached a decision after about three hours of deliberations.

Roof was convicted last month of all 33 federal charges against him. During sentencing, he represented himself and told jurors he didn’t have a mental illness. But he didn’t offer any remorse or ask that his life be spared.

Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or perhaps start a race war with the slayings.
American Dylann Roof is sentenced to death for the Charleston church shooting in which nine people were killed.