Federal appeals court upholds death penalty for Dylann Roof

CHARLESTON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court has upheld a death penalty sentencing against Dylann Roof, who was convicted of murdering nine African Americans in a Charleston church in 2015.

The ruling was published by the court Wednesday.

In the court’s conclusion, they specify that Roof murdered the nine victims “with the express intent of terrorizing not just his immediate victims at the historically important Mother Emanuel Church, but as many similar people as would hear of the mass murder.”

The conclusion notes that Roof’s acts “intended to foment racial division and strife across America.”

According to the Fourth Circuit Court’s ruling, Roof’s actions “qualify him for the harshest penalty that a just society can impose.”