CHARLESTON, S.C. _ For the six days of the Dylann Roof federal death penalty trial, attorney David Bruck has been trying to get evidence before the jury that would show Roof had a mental illness or defect that might have caused his client to kill nine African-Americans at a Charleston church Bible study.
And for six days, Judge Richard Gergel has denied Bruck's repeated attempts.
On Wednesday, Gergel turned down Bruck's last attempt to put mental illness testimony before the jury in this, the ongoing guilt-or-innocence phase.
The defense rested without putting any witnesses on the stand.
On Wednesday, however, Bruck had told Gergel he wanted to offer testimony by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, as well as statements by three former Roof co-workers at a pest control company.
That kind of evidence simply can't be offered for the jury to consider as it weighs whether to find Roof guilty or not of hate crimes resulting in death, the judge told Bruck.
However, Gergel said, "It is potentially relevant to the penalty phase."
In the trial's second, or penalty phase, the jury will decide whether to give Roof death or life in prison without parole.
Roof was found competent to stand trial. But the second phase of a death penalty trial is when a defendant's lawyers can introduce evidence about mental illness in an effort to offset prosecution evidence about deliberateness and horror of the killings.
The problem for Bruck, a noted capital defense lawyer, is that Roof has already announced he will represent himself in the trial's second phase. Many observers believe he will try to explain to the jury how his white supremacist beliefs justified killing African-Americans, which would not endear him to jurors.
