The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine Black people at a South Carolina church in 2015, over his death sentence and conviction, CBS News reports.
Roof was found guilty in December of 2016 of 33 counts of federal hate crimes and was later sentenced to death after opening fire on the Black congregation of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, during bible study in a racially-motivated attack.
Roof had asked the court to decide how to handle disputes over mental illness-related evidence between capital defendants and their attorneys. The justices did not comment Tuesday in turning away the appeal.
A US appeals court last year upheld the conviction and death sentence of Roof.
Roof initially confessed to the June 17, 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME Church in a videotaped interview with federal agents, but later pleaded not guilty in court.
He represented himself in the sentencing proceedings, and presented no evidence and called no witnesses.
In 2017, Roof attempted to fire two attorneys — one who was Indian and one who was Jewish — on the basis of their race and religion. In a handwritten request filed with the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, Roof wrote that his attorneys' backgrounds were "a barrier to effective communication."