Trial for accused Charleston church shooter delayed to January

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

A South Carolina judge on Wednesday delayed the murder trial of the accused gunman in last summer's Charleston church massacre by six months and rescheduled the proceedings for Jan. 17, 2017.

Judge J.C. Nicholson told a court hearing he had been obliged to push back the trial from its planned start date in July because defense lawyers said a doctor needs two to six months to conduct psychiatric testing of 22-year-old defendant Dylann Roof.

Roof is accused of opening fire on June 17, 2015, during a bible study session at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and killing nine parishioners, including pastor state Senator Clementa Pinckney, in a crime that shocked the nation.

He is charged with nine counts of murder, as well as with attempting to murder three people who survived the rampage, and he faces the death penalty.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-south-carolina-shooting-idUSKCN0XA1Y4

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World | Wed Apr 13, 2016 12:27pm EDT
CHARLESTON, S.C. | BY HARRIET MCLEOD

[scscholar]

1. Those Republicans just don't want him found guilty!

Found guilty!

[houston16revival]

2. Psychiatrist

must have been a home improvement contractor

Get the job, then delay, delay, delay

[melm00se]

3. damn....

a judge who wants to ensure that a defendant gets a fair trial and defense.

[Beaverhausen]

4. It takes a year and a half to mount a defense?

Don't think so.

[melm00se]

6. i did a little looking

and according to this article:

The median age of a murder case at resolution -- by verdict, plea or dismissal -- was 528 days last year.

that's about a 18 months

[Yo_Mama]

8. Defense offered a guilty plea if the prosecution agreed not to seek death.

Prosecution is apparently seeking a death penalty now.

So now the only option is for defense to seek to present mitigating factors. Which may well be present.

Hey, if it's a death penalty case, waiting doesn't change the outcome.

Note that if the judge denied the time necessary, it would be grounds for appeal. I gather that the date set will now be FIRM.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. DELAY UNTIL AFTER THE 2016 ELECTION!!!!!

The trial will bring up questions about race issues in America & the Confederate Battle flag that will make TRUMP, CRUZ & the GOP in general take the their typical racist side of things to keep their voter base happy or they stand no chance at all of winning any election...So, maybe they did not want to have to walk that tightrope!

[Yo_Mama]

7. Ah, so they made the DP decision.

Of course the defense will get an interval to do the testing.