Dylann Roof allowed to hire lawyers back, for now

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Death penalty trials are split into two parts: the guilt phase, and then a separate portion that focuses on whether the defendant will be sentenced to death, or life in prison. Roof’s lawyers can represent him in the guilt portion.

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Gergel, who last week called Roof’s decision to be his own lawyer “unwise,” said he is still worried Roof is making a grave error by deciding to represent himself in the penalty phase.

“I continue, Mr. Roof, to urge you to reconsider this decision,” Gergel said.

Authorities said Roof shot nine black people during a prayer meeting on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Charleston because he hated African-Americans. He faces hate crimes and obstruction of religion charges.

A state death-penalty trial on nine counts of murder will follow the federal trial.

Roof’s main act during his week as his own lawyer was to oversee, along with prosecutors, the selection of 67 people who will make up the pool for the 12 jurors and six alternates. The jury will be selected Wednesday before opening statements.

The week of jury qualification was much shorter than the federal death-penalty trial of Boston bomber Dshokhar Tsarnaev, which took almost two months.

Gergel held a 50-minute hearing to deal with other motions Monday. He agreed to allow Roof’s parents, grandmother and grandfather, who is a lawyer, to be in the courtroom for the trial even though they are potential witnesses. All other witnesses must stay out of the courtroom unless they are testifying.

Prosecutors told Gergel that they expect their case in the guilt phase to last six or seven days, with Bruck saying he will take “very little additional time.”

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Associated Press Writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press