Charleston church shooter's competency hearing goes into second day
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A closed hearing to determine whether Dylann Roof is competent to stand trial will continue into a second day Tuesday, the courts announced Monday.
A decision on Roof's competency may come later this week when U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel writes his order. Gergel said last week that he and his staff would work through Thanksgiving on the order.
Gergel ordered the competency hearing closed last week after concluding that holding it in open court could threaten Roof's right to a fair trial.
Judge refuses to open Dylann Roof competency hearing
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Roof, 22, who faces 33 federal charges in connection with the murders of nine African-Americans at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston in June 2015.
Roof's trial began Nov. 7 with jury selection but was called to a halt. Gergel subsequently disclosed that Roof was undergoing a competency evaluation and that a hearing to determine his competency to stand trial would be held last week. Gergel then moved the hearing to Monday and issued an order sealing it.
The Greenville News and USA Today Network objected to the closure, along with the Associated Press, the Charleston Post and Courier and The State newspapers, National Public Radio, WCSC-TV and federal prosecutors.
Gergel last Thursday listened for 45 minutes as members of victims' families and news media representatives lodged objections to the closure. But the judge was not swayed.
Competency hearings, Gergel wrote in his order, can complicate a trial if they are open. For instance, he said, the defendant can talk to the court-appointed examiner without any Miranda warning and may disclose matters that would not be allowed to be disclosed in a trial because of a Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and not testify against himself.
Also, he wrote, a defendant in a competency hearing can testify without waiving his right to remain silent at trial. And in some instances, Gergel wrote, a competency report may not be used against a defendant at trial, and doing so could lead to a verdict in a death-penalty case being overturned.
The judge said at Thursday's hearing that he was worried that if the hearing were open jurors might learn details, which could include extensive statements by Roof.
Defendants who are found incompetent to stand trial — usually meaning they are unable to assist with their own defense or lack comprehension of the proceedings — are committed to a hospital for treatment to restore competency, said Professor Richard Bonnie, director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.
“Generally speaking, in most cases where people are found incompetent and need treatment for restoration, it’s a matter of months and the person is typically restored to their ability to stand trial,” said Bonnie, who is not associated with the Roof case. “The supposition in these cases is there are acute symptoms of mental illness and they can be treated in the way you would normally treat acute mental illness.”
In another high-profile shooting case, a federal judge determined that defendant Jared Loughner was incompetent to stand trial, and after more than a year of treatment that included medication, found he could understand the proceedings.
Loughner then pleaded guilty to federal charges that included the murders of six people in a 2011 Tucson shooting spree that targeted and critically injured U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The deal took the death penalty off the table.
Gergel said if he finds Roof competent, jury selection would resume on Nov. 28.
The Roof trial as well as the trial of a white former North Charleston police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of a black man are to be the subject of a prayer vigil Tuesday requested by Gov. Nikki Haley.
S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley asks for prayer amid Dylann Roof, Michael Slager trials
Haley said Monday she plans to be at a noon service at Emanuel AME and is asking churches statewide to ring their bells and host prayer services at that time for healing from Hurricane Matthew and the two murder trials.
"We don't know what's going to come out of these murder trials," she said. "I just felt it was a very important time that we all come together and just reflect back on 2015 and what brought us together in the first place, what allowed the rest of the country and the world to notice the grace of South Carolinians and the way we handled it."
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