A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a death sentence for Dylann Roof, the white man convicted in the mass shooting of Black members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Roof, 27, had appealed his sentence to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded: “No cold record or careful parsing of statutes and precedents can capture the full horror of what Roof did. His crimes qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose.”
The court recounted the crimes of Roof, who as a 21-year-old admitted white supremacist entered the church on June 17, 2015, and joined a Bible study group.
“The parishioners welcomed Roof, handing him a Bible and a study sheet,” the court said. “For the next 45 minutes, Roof worshipped with the parishioners. They stood and shut their eyes for closing prayer.
“Roof then took out his gun and started…
