Remember the tragedy back in June 2015 when 9 people were gunned down at a church in Charleston, South Carolina? 

A young man named Dylann Roof was arrested and charged with the multiple homicides under federal criminal laws against hate crimes.

This makes Dylann Roof eligible for capital punishment under the FEDERAL death penalty, not any state statute. The laws of South Carolina are not at issue here.

Now, Roof’s defense counsel are arguing that the federal death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution as cruel and unusual punishment under both the Fifth and the Eighth Amendments.

Read their brief here. 

Did you know that there was a federal death penalty statute that operates independently of any state law?