The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected an appeal from Dylann Roof, a self-avowed racist, who was sentenced to death for gunning down nine members of a Black church congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The justices did not comment in turning away the appeal from Roof, who claimed a lower court mishandled issues related to his mental illness during his trial.
Roof, who resisted presenting evidence about his alleged mental illness, fired his attorneys and represented himself during the sentencing phase of his capital trial, which ended with his being sentenced to death.
Roof shot and killed nine participants at a Bible study session at the historically black Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015 in hopes of helping to ignite a racial civil war.
A jury found convicted him, and a panel of appellate judges had previously upheld his conviction and death sentence.
Roof, 28, is on federal death row at a maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He still has other potential grounds for appeal to pursue before facing possible execution.
