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| Dylann Roof indicted on dozens of federal hate crime charges | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The 21-year-old man suspected of killing nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, has been indicted on dozens of federal charges, US attorney general Loretta Lynch announced on Wednesday. | |
| A federal grand jury indicted Roof on nine counts of murder under two separate hate crimes laws as well as the use of a firearm, Lynch said. | |
| The charges are in addition to murder and weapons charges he already faces at the county level. Both the federal and state charges can include the death penalty, though no decision has yet been made on whether to seek Roof’s execution. | |
| Roof is accused of entering the Emanuel AME church in Charleston on 17 June, sitting through an hour of Bible study before fatally shooting nine people and fleeing. He was captured 240 miles away in Shelby, North Carolina. | Roof is accused of entering the Emanuel AME church in Charleston on 17 June, sitting through an hour of Bible study before fatally shooting nine people and fleeing. He was captured 240 miles away in Shelby, North Carolina. |
| In addition to evidence gathered at the scene and photos in which he appears waving a Confederate flag, authorities also suspect Roof is the author of a widely cited racist screed, published on a website called the Last Rhodesian, a reference to the now-defunct African nation whose leader was openly racist. | In addition to evidence gathered at the scene and photos in which he appears waving a Confederate flag, authorities also suspect Roof is the author of a widely cited racist screed, published on a website called the Last Rhodesian, a reference to the now-defunct African nation whose leader was openly racist. |
| The federal charges come as Roof faces nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge, counts on which South Carolina prosecutors could choose to seek the death penalty. | The federal charges come as Roof faces nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge, counts on which South Carolina prosecutors could choose to seek the death penalty. |
| Roof cannot be charged with hate crimes in state court, however – South Carolina is among just five states, including the southern states of Georgia and Arkansas, that have no hate crimes laws. | Roof cannot be charged with hate crimes in state court, however – South Carolina is among just five states, including the southern states of Georgia and Arkansas, that have no hate crimes laws. |
| A hate crime is not a distinct federal offense, but rather an existing criminal offense that is motivated by bias, such as alleged racial bias in Roof’s case. The FBI often helps local jurisdictions investigate these acts, such as arson or murder. That evidence may be used to bring civil rights charges against a defendant, which is under the Department of Justice’s purview. The FBI looks at hate crimes prosecutions as a “backstop” to prosecutions by local law enforcement. In 2012, the FBI helped investigate more than 200 hate crimes, the agency said on its website. | |
| Nationally, almost 6,000 hate crimes were reported to local law enforcement agencies in 2013 according to the FBI, the most recent year for which data is available. However, it’s unclear how reliable this data is. | |
| Studies by the Department of Justice have found as many as 250,000 Americans 12 and older could be victims of hate crimes each year, two-thirds of which go unreported. | |
| Federal prosecutors believe that hate crimes are underreported, and recent research suggests that as many as two-thirds of hate crimes are not correctly counted as such by local jurisdictions. |