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Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof's attempt to fire Jewish and Indian defence lawyers denied

White supremacist facing trial for racist massacre argues unsuccessfully that it would be 'impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies'

Wednesday 20 September 2017 04:11 EDT
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Dylann Roof is escorted into the court room at Charleston County Judicial Center to enter a guilty plea on murder charges for the 2015 shooting massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on 10 April 2017
Dylann Roof is escorted into the court room at Charleston County Judicial Center to enter a guilty plea on murder charges for the 2015 shooting massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on 10 April 2017 (Grace Beahm/Reuters)

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A federal appeals court has denied white supremacist Dylann Roof's request to replace his Jewish and Indian lawyers who are appealing his death sentence for a racist massacre in South Carolina a day after he filed it.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a one-page, 11-word denial on Tuesday.

Roof's handwritten appeal was filed on Monday. He wrote: “It will be impossible for me to trust two attorneys that are my political and biological enemies.”

Roof was sentenced to death in January after being convicted of hate crimes in the killings of nine black worshippers at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in June 2015.

In denying Roof's requests, the judges wrote: “The court denies the motion for substitution of counsel on appeal.”

AP

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