Judge blocks mental health testimony for South Carolina church shooting suspect

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. | Tue Dec 13, 2016 | 2:26pm EST

Judge blocks mental health testimony for South Carolina church shooting suspect

By Harriet McLeod | CHARLESTON, S.C.

A federal judge said on Tuesday he would not allow defense lawyers to present evidence about Dylann Roof's mental health to jurors weighing his guilt in the June 2015 massacre at a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Roof's lawyers have not disputed that the avowed white supremacist shot and killed nine black parishioners during a Bible study and asked to call witnesses to testify about his state of mind and personal characteristics.

The motion listing the witnesses was sealed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson, who said in court they included a police officer and someone with whom Roof had a business interaction, objected to the proposed testimony as "self-serving hearsay" and "justification."

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel ruled that such evidence must wait until the penalty phase, when prosecutors plan to seek a death sentence.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-south-carolina-shooting-roof-idUSKBN1422GT

[MFM008]

1. I am against the death penalty

BUT He had a list of church's in the area that were either next or in case the one he was at didn't work out.
To me if I were a juror would be clear and convincing evidence of planning or the ability to plan
im afraid mental health evidence wouldn't be convincing, and I've had 2 years of college psychology.
not to mention my own mental health problems................

[mercuryblues]

2. This was nothing

more than a back handed attempt to get the idea he was crazy implanted in the jurors mind for sentencing. These witnesses for his mental health were not mental health professionals that would be able to determine his state of mind based on knowledge. Those have determined that he was and is mentally fit.

[Yo_Mama]

3. He may be mentally ill, but competent to stand trial.

You have to be very specifically insane in a certain way to plead not guilty on grounds of insanity.

In other words, evidence as to mental illness at the time properly belongs in the sentencing phase rather than the guilt phase, as the judge has ruled.

The prior determinations of his fitness to stand trial are about his current status and ability to understand and cooperate in his defense. They also don't bear on his mental state at the time of the crime, although the police got him to talk and the recorded confession demonstrates that he was not mentally ill enough at the time to plead it as evidence of legal innocence.

[mercuryblues]

4. Agreed

This was an attempt by the defense to plant the idea he is really mentally ill for the penalty phase. I am glad the judge didn't let them get away with it.

[Yo_Mama]

5. Yeah. But I don't think there was ever a chance of that. n/t