Charleston church shooting: An eye for an eye

South Carolina prosecutors Thursday said they will seek the death penalty for Dylann Roof, the accused killer in the June church massacre in Charleston.

A court document filed by Scarlett Wilson, the state’s prosecutor in the case, cited the fact that “two or more persons were murdered,” allegedly by Roof, as grounds for the death penalty.

“This was the ultimate crime, and justice from our state calls for the ultimate punishment,” Wilson said in a video of her announcement posted by The New York Times.

She acknowledged that some family members of the nine people who were killed opposed the death penalty, citing religious and other reasons.

But she said there was wide support for her decision.

Roof faces both state and federal charges that he massacred nine African-Americans after joining them at a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic black church in the coastal city of Charleston.

Roof, 21, who is white, had avowed racial hatred prior to the shooting.

In South Carolina state court, he faces murder and weapons charges. 

At the federal level, prosecutors charge that Roof violated hate crime laws.

In early August, Roof’s attorney told a federal court that Roof wanted to plead guilty to the federal hate crime charges, but would wait until the federal government decided if it would seek the death penalty.

Federal prosecutors have not yet indicated a decision on the death

penalty.

Most death penalty cases in the United States are heard in state courts, where the vast majority of violent crime is prosecuted.

Roof’s photos on the internet showing him displaying the Confederate flag – a 19th century symbol of slavery that has persisted around the south – provoked nationwide calls for the flag to be banished.

Major retailers like Wal-Mart, Amazon and eBay removed it from their shelves and offerings within days after the shootings.

After several weeks, the South Carolina state legislature voted to take down the Confederate flag that still waved on State House grounds. 

One of the men killed at the church had been a member of the legislature.

The flag was raised in 1962 as resistance in the state’s white population grew against the civil rights movement.

(File photo: Facebook)