Dylann Roof won’t submit evidence to spare life

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – Dylann Roof has told a judge he plans on calling no witnesses and presenting no evidence to persuade a jury to spare his life for the hate crime of killing nine black people at a South Carolina church’s Bible study.

Roof told U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel at a hearing Wednesday that he still plans to act as his own lawyer when the penalty phase of his federal death penalty trial begins next Tuesday in Charleston.

Gergel told Roof to talk to his grandfather, who is a lawyer, and other family members one last time. He says Roof can change his mind and bring back his attorneys up until opening statements next week.

Roof’s defense attorneys wanted to call mental health experts, but Roof has indicated he will not. In his hate-filled, racist journal read to the jury during his trial, Roof said his doesn’t believe in psychology, calling it “a Jewish invention.”