# Dylann Roof found guilty - rot in hell **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 15, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814 "2016-12-15T21:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/21 "2016-12-16T04:33:17Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > To say he did what he did just because he was a “nutjob” is dangerous. Perhaps. But also accurate. Plenty of white supremacists out there, still. But most don’t shoot up churches in ways essentially guaranteeing they will get caught, then try to represent themselves ( badly ) in court. He’s not just stupid and bigoted, he’s _disturbed_. Not an excuse, but an accurate description. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/22 "2016-12-16T04:49:57Z")
Maybe. But there is way too many strange fruit hanging on the poplar trees for me to ever assume a white guy who murdered black people was _just_ a nut job. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/23 "2016-12-16T05:30:33Z")
I’m generally opposed to the death penalty, because of the innocents put to death. But this guy’s no innocent, and should suffer the consequences of his evil. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/24 "2016-12-16T07:37:47Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’m generally opposed to the death penalty, because of the innocents put to death. But this guy’s no innocent, and should suffer the consequences of his evil. Same here. I’m generally only for the death penalty in extreme cases (like war criminals, or major serial killers). The only dilema here though is that killing’s too good for the bastard – I want him to sit and suffer for years. > [@RandMcnally](#): > > I mean, this is in the state that executed a [14 year-old black kid in the electric chair](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/exonerated-after-execution-judge-tosses-teens-murder-conviction-n270176). Roof’s white supremacy isn’t anything new. That was _1944_. I’m not saying racism has gone away, but no state executes kids anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/25 "2016-12-16T10:28:01Z")
I’m quite strongly opposed to the death penalty in this and all cases, but nevertheless it does exist, and so long as that remains the case I can’t see how it’s not the (legally) correct option for this case. There’s no way to divide things up so that all of the other inmates on federal death row deserve to be there but Dylan Roof does not. The jury coming back with life in prison would just show how arbitrary the American death penalty is. (I felt the same way about the Aurora shooter. He got what I think is ultimately the correct maximum sentence…but the fact that he got life in prison should have resulted in an immediate commutation of every other death sentence in Colorado, because I’m pretty sure none of the people on death row did anything as bad as what he did.) ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/26 "2016-12-16T13:03:10Z")
There’s no way a mentally stable person does this. Get him into mandatory therapy, find the drugs that will help him, and when he is finally sane enough to realize the horrors of what he die, THEN we execute him. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/27 "2016-12-16T13:18:50Z")
Matthew 25:40 : “The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Dylann Roof is truly the least of our people. But even he does not deserve a cruel fate. He should be imprisoned in humane conditions for the remainder of his life. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/28 "2016-12-16T13:40:15Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That was _1944_. I’m not saying racism has gone away, but no state executes kids anymore. Execute? No, but they do still throw minors in jail for life. But my point was t to ask if they were all nut jobs back then? Can we just say that all the white people who murdered blacks and destroyed their cities were just crazy? Or is it more this anti-black hated in our country is more prevalent than we want to admit and is just hiding behind a thin veneer of civilization? I’d wager to guess that every black family in America has a story of someone “disappeared.” Were those who did that just crazy? If so there’s a lot of insane white people in American history. But yeah, fuck this guy. If a black man went into a white church and shot a bunch of people I highly doubt he’d have been taken alive, let alone brought fucking Burger King. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/29 "2016-12-16T14:33:30Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > I’m quite strongly opposed to the death penalty in this and all cases, but nevertheless it does exist, and so long as that remains the case I can’t see how it’s not the (legally) correct option for this case. There’s no way to divide things up so that all of the other inmates on federal death row deserve to be there but Dylan Roof does not. The jury coming back with life in prison would just show how arbitrary the American death penalty is. (I felt the same way about the Aurora shooter. He got what I think is ultimately the correct maximum sentence…but the fact that he got life in prison should have resulted in an immediate commutation of every other death sentence in Colorado, because I’m pretty sure none of the people on death row did anything as bad as what he did.) Well said. Those are my thoughts as well. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/30 "2016-12-16T14:55:05Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > What we do to a prisoner should depend not on what he is but rather on what we are. Quoted for truth > [@](#): > > He should be imprisoned until death or until he inarguably presents no danger to any person, kept out of solitary confinement (which is cruel and unusual punishment) as much as is consistent with his own safety, and used as an example at every opportunity to demonstrate that youthful embrace of idiotic racist fantasy is a road to opprobrium and disaster. I think we are the sort of people that wants him to wish for death as an early release. I don’t want to pay for the room and board on this guy but if the families want to grant him mercy I’ll chip in my fair share. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/31 "2016-12-16T15:41:58Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t think the feds would actually carry out the death sentence for him or the Boston bomber. Timothy McVeigh says hello from the great beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/32 "2016-12-16T15:53:48Z")
I support the death penalty, as long as you don’t suck at it. I do not support inflicting suffering for suffering’s sake. If there’s no doubt that he did it, and there’s no doubt that what he did is morally abhorrent, put him down and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/33 "2016-12-16T15:59:34Z")
> [@JeffB](#): > > That part is still to come. He’s representing himself during the sentencing phase. He had representation during the trial, but they didn’t have much to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s representing himself so that he can say truly horrible things to the survivors and demand the death sentence to fill a need for some sort of martyrdom. As for solitary confinement, I think I meant to say ‘isolation’. I think that prisoners who are in imminent danger from others are kept out of gen pop. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/34 "2016-12-16T16:17:34Z")
In the words of one fired-up Texas prosecutor: “I dare say that when his appointed day and hour arrives, you can put your ear down to Mother Earth and hear the gates of hell clang shut on his murderous soul.” ---
**Author:** ![Covert\_Harris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Covert\_Harris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covert_Harris)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/35 "2016-12-17T12:50:08Z")
There are a lot of moralizing comments about what this guy did. Moralizing might help if there were a god or some other moral authority whose rules were broken. And criminal laws don’t help, either, because 80% of people who commit violent crimes have no thoughts whatsoever about consequences when they are committing the act. The fact is people have trillions of synaptic connections, and probability dictates that some will deviate off the bell curve of normal firing. By studying neural science, some solutions could be suggested. But moral considerations would prevent most of them from being instituted; such as head scans, like you would for guns through a metal detector in an airport; and, if, say, an amygdala or a certain prefrontal portion wasn’t big enough to suggest healthy enough neural firing, society could either put the person in a place where he couldn’t hurt others as easily, or euthanize him (him’s are most of the problem), or in the future, operate. With regard to White violence against Black people, specifically, a major cause is an unconscious association of Black people with the darkness a person fears from within his own psyche. The solution in this case, if society had on average maybe 40 more IQ points, would be forced integration. Virtually no White person who has ever dated a Black person, for one example, ever got on an anti-Black vendetta (I read this in a textbook, but can’t cite it). He would then associate something else with his shadow. ---
**Author:** ![Covert\_Harris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Covert\_Harris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covert_Harris)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/36 "2016-12-17T13:01:54Z")
I was being facetious about euthanizing anybody, but couldn’t edit my remark after I signed out prematurely. I don’t want to make light of my point that the problem is neurological. Parenting and societal influences can help, but not for the most part cure these kinds of problems anymore than indignation can. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/37 "2016-12-17T14:27:15Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > In the words of one fired-up Texas prosecutor: “I dare say that when his appointed day and hour arrives, you can put your ear down to Mother Earth and hear the gates of hell clang shut on his murderous soul.” Amen. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/38 "2016-12-17T16:35:43Z")
There is no doubt his crime merits the ultimate penalty. But do the relatives of his victims, [who forgave him the very first chance they had](https://youtu.be/Fc8yRyBll-Q?t=3m50s), deserve to know he was executed? In this case killing him will cause a second injury to the families of the victims. He needs to be locked up the rest of his life to both protect the public and serve as an example. The circumstances of that incarceration would depend on him and the reactions of other prisoners to him. Solitary only if warranted. That video still chokes me up a year and a half later. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/39 "2016-12-17T17:01:02Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > What we do to a prisoner should depend not on what he is but rather on what we are. This. > [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > He needs to be locked up the rest of his life to both protect the public and serve as an example. And to give him the opportunity to reform. Everyone deserves the opportunity, even Roof. That said, if the Death Penalty is given let it be done quickly. None of this faffing around for years. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/40 "2016-12-17T17:17:51Z")
I’m against the death penalty not because of any moral qualms but purely because of the chance of executing an innocent person. There is no chance here, and I hope Roof gets the death penalty. This is the sort of extreme case in which the death penalty should be applied, and if it’s not used in this case, then it really is time to take it off the books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814.md?page=3)