Hearing in church shooting trial to be closed

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C.

A hearing on suppressing evidence in the Charleston church shooting trial will be closed because an open hearing could compromise Dylann Roof’s right to a fair trial, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

“The court finds a compelling governmental interest in closing this proceeding that outweighs the strong public interest in open pretrial proceedings,” U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel wrote in an order issued after hearing the objections from media attorneys.

Roof, 22, goes on trial in November for hate crimes and other federal charges arising from the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church. His attorneys want to keep some evidence out of the death-penalty trial and Judge Gergel had set a hearing today on the matter.

He told attorneys earlier Wednesday that he doesn’t want potential jurors to hear about evidence that might be excluded from the trial.

“There are some circumstances where you can’t un-ring the bell,” the judge said. He said the hearing would not be secret and that a transcript eventually would be released.

Attorney Jay Bender, representing The Post and Courier, argued that any lack of impartiality among potential jurors could be avoided by asking questions during jury screening.