Dylan Roof is appealing his death sentence related to the 2015 fatal shooting of nine Black parishioners inside a historic Charleston, S.C. Black church. His lawyers say the White Supremacist was suffering from mental illness at the time of the fatal shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church. The attorneys allege Roof “believed his sentence didn’t matter because White nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war.” During a competency hearing before his 2017 trial, a judge ruled Roof was competent and had an extremely high IQ. Roof represented himself at trial and was convicted of 33 federal charges. He was prosecuted under the federal Shepard/Byrd Hate Crimes Act and is the first person to be ordered executed for a federal hate crime. He is now on death row at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
—TheGrio.com
Maybe money can’t buy love, but President Donald Trump is counting on it buying the votes of Black Americans. Allies of the president are organizing events in Black communities, where they praise Trump…and hand out tens of thousands of dollars to those who show up, according to Politico. The first such event was last month in Cleveland, where raffle winners were bestowed case gifts of several hundred dollars each. An organization called the Urban Revitalization Coalition is doing the cash giveaways. More are scheduled, though a Trump event in Virginia was postponed. Political experts have predicted that this year’s White House race will draw a record turnout and that Black voters—especially Black women—will be key. Experts say smart candidates will court Balck voters along the road to election day in November. The Trump campaign has been placing time and money into influencing Black voters. Last year, the president spoke at an HBCU to tout his record with exonerating Black inmates.—TheGrio.com
A Prince George’s County police officer shot and killed a man who was handcuffed and strapped in a seatbelt in the front seat of a squad car recently. The officer was not wearing a body camera. The incident happened in Temple Hills, Maryland where police responded to a 911 call around 8 p.m. about an erratic driver who struck multiple vehicles in the Silver Hill area and on St. Barnabas Rd., according to an NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. A spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Police said officers found the suspect on Winston Street and that they believe they smelled PCP coming from his vehicle. The spokesperson said officers handcuffed the driver with his hands behind his back and put him in the front passenger seat of a cruiser, which is standard for suspects to be transported to its corrections facility. Officers also strapped a seat belt across the suspect. An officer who was in the squad car waiting for a drug recognition expert when. Witnesses say they saw or heard a struggle, then heard loud bangs coming from inside the squad car. The officer fired his duty weapon several times. The suspect has not been identified pending notification of the family. The officer is also unidentified (at the time of this writing) and is on administrative duty.—TheGriol.com
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