Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof has pleaded guilty to all state charges clearing the way for his execution.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Dylann Roof, who shot to death nine people in a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to all state charges in the killings. 

Roof was sentenced to death by a federal jury back in January for the June 2015 massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The deal reached in the Charleston County Courthouse clears the way for his federal imprisonment, on death row, to begin. 

"This is the surest way to see that Dylann Roof is executed," said Scarlett A. Wilson, solicitor for the state's Ninth Judicial Circuit. "We hope that today truly will close a chapter for these victims." 

The deal means no state trial or sentencing phase will be necessary. 

Roof pleaded guilty to nine murder charges, three attempted murder charges, and one weapons charge. He was sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences and three consecutive 30-year sentences.

For me it is impossible to think about this case without feeling a real sense of loss. 

Not just over the lives that were lost in the shooting, though of course that's a large part of it, but also over the loss of this young man's life.

I work with troubled kids all of the time, and in all of them there is something worthy that you just have to identify and nurture in order to help them feel connected.

No person is simply evil, there is always something worth saving if only somebody recognizes that and makes the effort.

I have seen the worst kids become the best adults. It can happen.

For some reason Dylann Roof never had anybody to provide that guidance for him and because of that nine innocent people lost their lives. And one guilty one did as well.

Dylann Roof, the racist who murdered nine people in a South Carolina church, was found guilty on all thirty three charges.

Courtesy of NPR: 

A jury in Charleston, S.C., has found Dylann Roof guilty on all 33 counts of federal hate crimes he faced for murdering nine people and attempting to kill three others in the basement of a historically black church. 

Federal prosecutors are seeking a death sentence. Roof has asked to represent himself in the penalty phase of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 3. 

The guilt phase of the trial featured six days of testimony from 30 witnesses, including a recorded confession and excerpts from Roof's journal, and painted a picture of a young man filled with racial hatred who spent months planning to murder black people. 

Roof entered Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in downtown Charleston on the evening of June 17, 2015, and, for nearly an hour, sat among a dozen people at a bible study before opening fire during the worshippers' final prayer.

They better sentence this guy before Donald Trump gets sworn in and gives him amnesty.

 Don't forget that a large swath of Trump supporters most likely consider this guy a folk hero. And Trump certainly wants to keep these folks happy and voting for his candidates in midterm elections now doesn't he?

After all it appears that this is going to be Donald Trump's America, and in Donald Trump's America this is probably considered a protected expression of white pride.

FBI says that Dylann Roof should never have been able to purchase the gun he used to murder nine people in South Carolina.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

The FBI said Friday that the man accused of killing nine African American parishioners at a historically black church in Charleston should not have been able to purchase a gun. 

Officials said a background check failure allowed Dylann Roof to illegally purchase a .45-caliber Glock handgun on April 11, eight days after he turned 21, at Shooter's Choice in West Columbia, South Carolina . Roof had previously acknowledged drug possession, according to the FBI. 

Law enforcement officials had previously said the transaction was entirely legal, despite his pending drug charge. The weapon was purchased at the gun store which is 25 miles from his home. 

FBI director James B. Comey called that assessment "a mistake in a matter of heartbreaking importance".

It is important to note that if Roof's admission that he was in possession of illegal drugs had been forwarded to the FBI then federally mandated background checks would have discovered it and kept Roof from getting his hands on the gun that he used to murder nine innocent people in their own church.

In other words background checks DO work.

(There were earlier reports from Roof's uncle that he received the gun used in these attacks as a gift, but that was a false statement.)

Of course the argument will now be made that there are other ways of getting a gun that do not require background checks, such as gun shows for instance, but all that proves is that we need stricter gun control laws that cover any and all purchases of firearms.

The fact is that Dylann Roof was able to kill those people, on that day, with that weapon, because there was information not given to the FBI that would have prevented it.

Everything else is conjecture.

Dylann Roof's sister has a Go Fund account to pay for the wedding that was so inconveniently preempted by her brother's killing spree.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

Amber Roof posted a photo of herself with her fiancé Michael Tyo under the headline “A Fresh Start For Michael and Amber.” The page shows a goal of raising $5,000. 

“As many of you know Michael and I had to abruptly cancel our wedding day, due to the tragedy that occurred in Charleston,” she writes in a message on the page, referring to the day her brother gunned down nine people in their Charleston, S.C., church. 

“June 21st was suppose to be the happiest day of our lives. It is the day every girl dreams of, it was the day we dreamed of. We had each other, we have the perfect venue, and we had our vows ready to be read. We were ready! We had planned out every detail for months and months. It was going to be the PERFECT day!” she wrote. 

“Our day was the exact opposite. Our wedding day was full of sorrow, pain, and shame, tainted by the actions of one man,” Roof, 27, notes, saying her sibling’s sick actions were responsible for “destroying the first day of Michael and my life together.”

Gee, how sad for her. 

Here she is trying to start a life with her soon to be husband and her brother goes and slaughters nine people in a church in an effort to start a race war.

I can only imagine how much she has suffered.

Now if you will excuse me I have to step outside and do a little primal screaming.

Conservative website that might have inspired Dylann Storm Roof defends his racist views, but really wish he had not shot people.

Kyle Rogers of the Council for Conservative Citizens.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

The Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization with white supremacist leanings, has issued a statement defending the "legitimate grievances" expressed by Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof. Roof made reference to the council in his manifesto, saying he used its site to learn about "black on White crime." 

In the statement, the council condemns "Roof’s murderous actions," but goes on to warn that "our society's silence about [such] crimes—despite enormous amounts of attention to 'racially tinged' acts by whites—only increase the anger of people like Dylann Roof. This double standard *only makes acts of murderous frustration more likely* [emphasis theirs]. In his manifesto, Roof outlines other grievances felt by many whites. Again, we utterly condemn Roof’s despicable killings, but they do not detract in the slightest from the legitimacy of some of the positions he has expressed."

So I guess the message here is that hating black people is fine, but shooting them full of holes is crossing a line. 

Speaking of crossing lines it appears that Ted Cruz was by no means the only Republican politician or well known conservative that associated with the CCC.

According to The Daily Beast Trent Lott, Mike Huckabee, Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley have all had close ties with the group, and conservative firebrand Ann Coulter even defended them in one of her books.

And as it has turned out several presidential hopefuls, besides Ted Cruz, have received donations from CCC including Rick Santorum, Rand Paul, and even Mitt Romney back in 2012.

I think that is really why conservative politicians and their apologists are working so hard to convince people that now is not the time for politics (Or to talk about gun violence, which almost literally caused one MSNBC host to lose her shit.)

They don't want us talking about politics, because they are well aware that this shooting is tied to THEIR politics and rhetoric in a way that is essentially indefensible.

What we have learned about the Charleston, South Carolina shooting, and what we adamantly refuse to learn.

So I, like I am sure all of you, have been watching the news coverage concerning that shooting in Charleston all day today.

To be totally honest I have turned it off a number of times, but then I just go back to it later on like some kind of sadness groupie. And yes, it is heartbreaking.

For instance we have now had it confirmed that Dylann Storm Roof went into that church to start a race war. I think on some level we might have expected as much, but that does not make hearing it any less chilling.

Of course before that was revealed the folks at Fox News were trying desperately to suggest that this was not a racially motivated attack but rather an attack on Christianity. (They also suggested that pastors start carrying guns, because as we all know more guns mean less gun deaths.)

We also learned that Roof almost didn't go through with his plan because "everyone was so nice to him." Which is something that I have read about five times today and it still makes me choke up a little.

I also watched as the victim's families spoke during Roof's bond hearing, and tried to hold it together as every single one of them forgave him.

Yeah it was a hard day.

Made even harder by watching conservatives and Republican politicians attempting to redirect any public outcry over gun control, and claim that racism was not something that they helped to support through their rhetoric or political actions. 

However at least one politician found herself called to task on Facebook in a response that has now gone viral.

Like I said it's been a hard day, and hopefully for some people, who have been working spin for the last 24 hours, it has been especially hard.

And as Jon Stewart so eloquently put it last night, nothing is really going to change. The only question remaining is how long will it be before we are all here again, talking about yet ANOTHER senseless shooting?