Convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof began making his case in court Wednesday as jurors weigh whether to give him a death sentence. Roof, wearing a gray sweater and speaking so softly that people in the courtroom strained to hear him, addressed the jury in a brief opening statement. Here’s what he said:
My opening statement may seem a little out of place.
You may have heard the reason I chose to represent myself so to prevent my lawyers from misrepresentation. That’s absolutely true.
It isn’t because I am trying to keep a secret.
I am not going to lie to you through myself.
My lawyers forced me to go through two mental competency hearings, not because I have an issue, but it is going to be revealed.
In that respect my self-representation has accomplished nothing, you say, what is the point? Point is that I am not going to lie to you.
Other than the fact that I trusted people I shouldn’t have… (inaudible).
There’s nothing wrong with me psychologically.
Anything you heard from my lawyers in the last phase (of the trial), I ask you to forget it. That’s the last thing.