Court denies mass shooter Dylann Roof's request to oust his lawyers because of ethnicity
Dylann Roof. Photo from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.
Updated: Dylann Roof, the white supremacist sentenced to death for killing nine black church members, was rebuffed when he sought to remove his appointed appellate lawyers because they “are my political and biological enemies.”
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request on Tuesday, one day after Roof filed his pro se motion, the State reports.
Roof said in the motion that his lawyers, Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani, “are Jewish and Indian, respectively. It is therefore quite literally impossible that they and I could have the same interests relating to my case.” BuzzFeed News, the State, the Post and Courier and Charleston City Paper covered the filing.
Roof also clashed with his court-appointed lawyer, David Bruck, during his trial. Roof wrote that in his motion that Bruck is Jewish and “his ethnicity was a constant source of conflict even with my constant efforts to look past it.”
Roof has said he killed the church members because he hoped to start a race war.
