Current Event Project
A year ago, in June, a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was shot at by a man named Dylann Roof. This shooting is now known as the “Charleston Massacre.” During the shooting, nine people were ruled dead. Roof is currently facing 33 federal charges. These include violating the Hate Crime Act, resulting in death and attempt to kill; obstruction of exercise of religion, resulting in death, involving an attempt to kill, and use of a dangerous weapon; and use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence. Roof is scheduled to be on trial in January of 2017. The biggest factor making the news now is that a federal judge granted Roof’s motion to represent himself in the upcoming jury selection …show more content…
At this point, selecting a jury continued. Multiple jurors were questioned while the controversy over Roof’s pro se was happening, and only 35% of them were qualified; the other 65% was excused. Now, the court still needs to find 70 qualified jurors. All these juror cuts are affecting the length of the trial. These people that are picked to be jurors with be separated from friends and family for a longer time than need be. Also, the people being excused will still have to serve jury duty at a different time and on a different case. Roof deciding to represent himself has a large population up in arms. This is because of the different races involved, black and white. It is obvious that Roof was going for as many colored people as possible. Therefore, most African Americans want him to be severely punished. On top of that, Roof has given another reason for colored people to think whites are racist. This is an event that has affected people of all races. The event of Roof’s motion to represent himself being granted has become a very important event. This is because there is a few ways his trial could go now. One way is that he makes multiple critical procedural missteps in open court. Another way is that he can slow down the system by turning the trial into a filibuster speech. However, when everyone watches his trial it could be interesting. Pro se defendants are particularly good at creating courtroom drama. The bad part about the courtroom drama is that there is still a hurting community after the initial massacre
A year ago, in June, a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was shot at by a man named Dylann Roof. This shooting is now known as the “Charleston Massacre.” During the shooting, nine people were ruled dead. Roof is currently facing 33 federal charges. These include violating the Hate Crime Act, resulting in death and attempt to kill; obstruction of exercise of religion, resulting in death, involving an attempt to kill, and use of a dangerous weapon; and use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence. Roof is scheduled to be on trial in January of 2017. The biggest factor making the news now is that a federal judge granted Roof’s motion to represent himself in the upcoming jury selection …show more content…
At this point, selecting a jury continued. Multiple jurors were questioned while the controversy over Roof’s pro se was happening, and only 35% of them were qualified; the other 65% was excused. Now, the court still needs to find 70 qualified jurors. All these juror cuts are affecting the length of the trial. These people that are picked to be jurors with be separated from friends and family for a longer time than need be. Also, the people being excused will still have to serve jury duty at a different time and on a different case. Roof deciding to represent himself has a large population up in arms. This is because of the different races involved, black and white. It is obvious that Roof was going for as many colored people as possible. Therefore, most African Americans want him to be severely punished. On top of that, Roof has given another reason for colored people to think whites are racist. This is an event that has affected people of all races. The event of Roof’s motion to represent himself being granted has become a very important event. This is because there is a few ways his trial could go now. One way is that he makes multiple critical procedural missteps in open court. Another way is that he can slow down the system by turning the trial into a filibuster speech. However, when everyone watches his trial it could be interesting. Pro se defendants are particularly good at creating courtroom drama. The bad part about the courtroom drama is that there is still a hurting community after the initial massacre