Judge pondering S.C. church shooter's competency

COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel has begun the process of deciding whether Dylann Roof is competent to stand trial following a second day of a closed-door hearing.

The federal courts sent out a brief statement late Tuesday afternoon explaining that the hearing had concluded with no decision yet on the matter.

The hearing started Monday afternoon.

Roiling from murder trials, South Carolina searches for healing

Gergel said last week that he anticipated he and his staff would work through Thanksgiving to prepare an order on Roof's competency.

He also said if he found Roof competent he wanted to resume jury selection next Monday.

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.

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.

Follow Tim Smith on Twitter: @tcsmith312