Page 5 - Guilt Phase News Today

So its a very dicey scenario in which you could be in a situation where he does confront them and that would be the most unfortunate thing of all. >> certainly. richard, he absolutely will be confronting them at this part of the case. lets get it clear, his attorney wanted to put forth some sort of mental deficiency argument to try to save his life. dylann roof rejected that. he rejected it. so any statements made by his lawyer have been stricken from the record in the penalty -- in the guilt ph...

So then to portray him during the guilt phase as something else, again, if im a defense attorney and im sensitive to your point im thinking about my credibility and i want to save my credibility when im trying to convince them not to kill him. so perhaps it was not the worst strategy in the world to let him be who he is, lets not try to insult the jurys intelligence and suddenly hes chock full of emotion and regret and remorse, lets save it for the penalty phase and i would submit during the pen...

This has been an emotionally draining week for the court. the first witness called to the san stand, the survivor who had that take a break from the testimony. on wednesday, the first day of opening arguments dylann roofs mother had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance with a heart attack. a lot of drama in the case. up until two sundays ago, roof wanted to represent himself. he has done an about face. now asking for representation during the guilt phase. he is expected to represent himself...

What he did. what narrative was the defense crafting there? >> look, david is probably one of the two or three best practitioners of capital defense and this has to be the most frustrating case in the world for him. not just because its such a horrific crime but because he has so much trouble with his client trying to benched and brought back and then benched again and its a horrific situation. i mean, this case literally takes the criminal justice system and pushes it to the edge. it really is ...

Jury see this is kid theyll realize how deranged he is and maybe some of the things i said in the guilt phase will resonate with them by proxy or by example. >> mark geragos and charles coleman, lets leave it there. who knows when we could get this verdict. well stand by for that. i just want to read the names of the nine innocent victims who lost their lives and remember them today. cynthia hurt, susie jackson, ethel lance, reverend depayne middleton, dr. reverend clemente pinckney, the reveren...

Case. including dylann roofs defense. up until two weeks ago, roof said he wanted to represent him c self. he has done an about face. now asking for representation during the guilt phase. he is expected to represent himself during the penalty phase. he is not just facing this federal hate crime death penalty case, but state death penalty case which is expected to be tried some time early next year. we expect closing arguments some time later this morning. john. nick, thank you. heart stopping ...

Said he did not know he killed nine people, he thought it was four or five. they stated he had a problem of reality. going back to what you and eric discussed about of the sentencing phase. remember he changed his mind on this. he was going to be representing himself for this phase, the guilt phase. he changed his mind three days before the trial began. right now in that courtroom, he had david brooke and this is a man who represented the hijackers. he was on tsarnaevs defense team. he was clear...

Information, its not a question of did he do it. the question is is he going to die for it. that will be a question presented at the mipenalty phas and presumably at the guilt phase but it wasnt. >> so looking to your point as to whether he will die for what he did piece, from a defense perspective, how would you argue to save his life? map that out. >> its very difficult. very few percent of death penalty eligible cases are pre-med pre-meditated. this is premeditated murder. that is the excepti...

Sanders, one of the survivors of that shooting. she actually had to take a break from her testimony because it was so emotional. also during opening statements, dylann roofs own mother suffered a heart attack and had to be removed from the courtroom, transferred to a local hospital by ambulance. theres also been a lot of drama around the defense for dylann roof. initially he said he wanted to represent himself in the guilt phase as well as the penalty phase. two sundays ago, he changed his mind ...

The death penalty there i think he almost certainly will. that will be in the penalty phase. here in the guilt phase i think the defense lawyers worry that by putting on ed here they could just insult the jurys intelligence. this is not a who done it. this is not a mystery about who did this shooting. >> this is a "if he gets put to death." >> right. and that will be a separate -- the way death penalty cases work is you have the guilt face which is concluding and its a foregone conclusion what t...