Death penalty for Dylann Roof as sentencing verdict reached

Dylann Roof will be put to death after a federal jury of his peers deliberated on the sentencing for three hours, according to multiple media reports. Roof was found guilty in the murder of nine people praying at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015.

WCNC reports Roof, who was 18 at the time of the murders, showed no response to the reading of the verdict.

He will be the first person on death row for federal hate crimes.

The formal sentencing hearing will take place Wednesday at 9:30am, according to WLTX's Janae Frazier, who then subsequently reported that the judge would not grant Roof's request for new lawyers for a motion for a new trial. The judge said Roof needed to show how his lawyers did not perform admirably by the time of the sentencing hearing.

Roof told the jury, "I still feel like I had to do it," before they deliberated on a sentencing verdict, according to ABC News.