DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Dylann Roof is the 22-year-old white man accused of killing nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., last year. He'll be back in federal court this morning. A jury is being finalized to hear this high-profile hate crimes case. Prosecutors say this was a race-based attack by a self-avowed white supremacist. And testimony is expected to start in that trial just days after a hung jury in another racially charged murder case near Charleston. And NPR's Debbie Elliott is in the city and joins us. Deb, good morning.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Morning.
GREENE: So what exactly is happening in court today with Dylann Roof?
ELLIOTT: Well, first, the jury will be selected, pulling from a pool of about 67 people that had previously been screened by the judge. And once they have that jury seated, opening statements should begin today and testimony shortly thereafter. Roof is going to be represented by his lawyers. There was some back and forth there.
He had sought to represent himself, but now he says he wants his counsel for the first part of this trial, which will determine guilt. Then, if he is found guilty, he plans to represent himself during the penalty phase of the trial. And that's when federal prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty, which is rare in federal cases.
GREENE: Wow. I mean, it's just amazing to think about the pain that those killings at the church caused in that community. And now, just as that trial is starting, we have this mostly white jury unable to reach a verdict in this other high-profile trial, the murder case of that former Charleston police officer, Michael Slager, who killed an unarmed black motorist. How is this all feeling there?
ELLIOTT: Well, it even was raised in the Roof case yesterday. At the last minute, his lawyers asked for a delay because of the publicity in the Slager case.
GREENE: Oh, interesting.
ELLIOTT: They argued - yeah, they argued this would be pressuring Roof to - the jury in the Roof case to consider broader concerns in the community. And the judge declined, so the trial is going to proceed as planned. But, you know, the people that I'm speaking with seem a little disappointed by the outcome of the Slager case.
They point to what many people have seen and what many people consider to be compelling evidence - that dramatic bystander cell phone video that showed Slager shooting Walter Scott as he was running away. Now, Slager had testified that he acted in fear because he thought Scott had grabbed his Taser. I spoke with Muhiyidin D’Baha with the Charleston Black Lives Matter movement, and he said the mistrial is just a blow for trust in the justice system once again.
MUHIYIDIN D’BAHA: This is a challenge to civil society. When your checks and balances are broken, when your social institutions are failing and the people don't trust them, that's a crisis of democracy.
ELLIOTT: Now, the prosecutor says the state is going to put Slager on trial again.
GREENE: But I suppose people in that movement are now moving on to the Dylann Roof trial. Is that what's sort of happening right now?
ELLIOTT: You know, people are watching the Roof trial, but they're also waiting for, you know, word on when the Slager case will restart. The Roof trial is a little different because the sentiment here is just - you know, people are just really still torn apart about that. That - you know, this trial means they're going to have to relive what - what was very much a defining and chilling moment for Charleston.
People are still grappling to understand how somebody could target people who are studying the Bible in a church basement. They're bowing for prayer. They're in this sacred space. And police say somebody came in and tried to start a race war there. I spoke with the Reverend Cress Darwin. He's a minister at the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston. It's a block from Emanuel AME. And he says this is really going to be trying.
CRESS DARWIN: It's hard. Here it is - it's Christmas, you know, and it's - all of a sudden, it's, like, the third week of the Advent - all of these things. So you've got this - this tension. And I think our community is just ready for this to be over. I'm very close with some of the people who lost folks, you know, who are strong and who are vibrant in their faith, but you get tired.
ELLIOTT: Now they have to face Roof in the federal courthouse.
GREENE: And anger there, Deb and concern, but so far, not the large-scale protests we've seen in other cities. Is that right?
ELLIOTT: No, people have called for calm, but there is frustration. I talked with Reverend Joe Darby, who's with the NAACP here. And he says, you know, Dylann Roof is a product of centuries of institutional racism here.
JOE DARBY: He is that segment of America that simply acted upon what a lot of people believe, what a lot of people, if they had either the nerve or the derangement, would also do. He's as American as apple pie, you know, because the issue of race in America is as American as apple pie.
ELLIOTT: So, David, as you hear, some difficult and challenging times ahead here.
GREENE: Indeed. OK, NPR's Debbie Elliott in Charleston, S.C. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
