File Photo of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.
Dylann Roof, the self-described white supremacist who gunned down nine black worshippers in a church, was unrepentant Tuesday as he nevertheless told the jury it would take just one holdout to spare his life.
"I still feel like I had to do it," he told jurors in a semi-coherent closing argument at the sentencing phase of the trial.
The 22-year-old, who was representing himself, has never expressed remorse for the June 2015 massacre at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston that shocked the nation.
A Bible study group at "Mother Emanuel," which had welcomed Roof, was just beginning its closing prayer when the self-avowed Nazi and Ku Klux Klan sympathizer opened fire, killing nine people ranging in age from 26 to 87.
It took the jury just two hours to convict him last month of all 33 federal hate crime charges against him.
The case was turned over Tuesday afternoon to the 12-member jury, which will decide whether to sentence Roof to death or life in prison.
"Only one of you has to disagree with the other jurors," he said, referring to the life sentence he would receive if the jury is not able to unanimously agree on the death penalty.
Roof is representing himself in the sentencing phase of the trial, against the advice of his lawyers and the judge.
- 'Not one tear' -
In a closing argument that lasted for two hours, prosecutor Jay Richardson urged jurors to sentence Roof to death for "this cold, calculated, malicious killing."
"Not one tear did he shed for those that he killed," he said. "Unrepentant. No remorse."
Richardson noted Roof only expressed sorrow that he's put his parents through an emotional trial during which his mother suffered a heart attack after a survivor's gripping testimony.
"He had sorrow for them. He had pity for himself. That he had lost his freedom. His ability to watch movies and drive a car," he said.
"But his sadness was reserved for the little white children that have to live with African Americans."
During the first phase of the trial, Roof made no attempt to explain his crimes and exhibited no signs of remorse as survivors recounted the rampage in heart-rending detail.
A video of Roof's chilling confession was shown to the jury.
"Somebody had to do something because black people are killing white people every day," Roof said without emotion to the FBI special agent questioning him. "They rape 100 white people a day."
In notes confiscated from Roof in prison in August 2015, he wrote that he was "not sorry."
"I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed," the notes said.
Roof's lawyers have suggested their client is not mentally fit, but US District Judge Richard Gergel has found Roof competent to stand trial -- twice.
Capital punishment rarely is meted out in federal cases, in part because violent crimes more typically are tried under state laws.
Federal authorities have executed only three inmates since 1976.
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