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.
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