North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A judge is considering whether Charleston church shooting defendant Dylann Roof should go to trial in state court before his federal trial.
His state trial on murder charges is currently set for January but prosecutor Scarlett Wilson wants the state to try Roof before his November federal trial on hate crimes and other counts.
Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson has called a hearing later Wednesday on the matter.
Public Defender Ashley Pennington has called Wilson’s request to move up the state trial “reckless and shortsighted.”
The 22-year-old defendant faces the death penalty in both state and federal court in the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel AME church.
