History is not on the side of accused murderers who act as their own attorneys in high-profile trials. Serial killer Ted Bundy, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., who killed three people at two Jewish centers in Overland Park, Kan., and Fort Hood, Texas, mass shooter Nidal Hasan represented themselves in court; all were sentenced to death. It is curious, then, that Dylann Roof, indicted for the 2015 murders of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church, has chosen to defend himself.
Last Monday, shortly after he was declared mentally competent to stand trial, Roof requested permission to serve as his own lawyer. Though US District Judge Richard Gergel called it “a decision you have a right to make,” he also warned Roof his stance was “strategically unwise.” That’s especially true in a federal death penalty case, yet there’s even greater reason for concern about this particular defendant’s choice.
Roof is a self-avowed white supremacist who allegedly targeted the historically black Emanuel A.M.E. Church and its parishioners. Prior to the murders, he is believed to have written a 2,500-word manifesto in which he denigrated African-Americans and credited himself with having the “bravery” to take his violent racist crusade “to the real world.” On that June night, parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, and the church’s pastor, who was also a state senator, were slaughtered.
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Acting as his own attorney, Roof won’t need a rambling statement posted on an obscure website to garner attention for his ugly beliefs. He’s already helping to choose his own jury; so far, he has objected only to the sole black person among prospective jurors. Soon he’ll have a captive courtroom audience forced to listen to him, with hundreds of thousands more following along on social media and news sites. Massacre survivors will endure the particular torment of being questioned by the stranger welcomed into their Wednesday night Bible study, where he stayed for an hour before allegedly shooting their friends and relatives to death.
The Roof trial comes at a precarious time, with white nationalists feeling emboldened to spew hate without repercussions. Since Election Day, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, has received more than 900 reports of harassment and intimidation nationwide. In Massachusetts, a hate crime hotline set up by Attorney General Maura Healey’s office fielded 400 calls in its first week.
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Waving a careless flame in our tinderbox nation, Roof’s trial could spark into a racist spectacle. Even with his life in the balance, Roof may relish a sideshow to cement himself as a white supremacist hero. While Roof has a constitutional right to self-representation, Gergel cannot allow him to make a mockery of the trial, those who were murdered, or those who will forever mourn them.
Hate delivered this terrible moment; it can’t be allowed free rein in the courtroom.