LIVE BLOG: Dylann Roof trial

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The penalty phase in the federal trial of Emanuel AME Church shooter Dylann Roof continues.

Before Christmas, a jury took less than two hours to convict the 22-year-old of charges in the 2015 killings of nine black parishioners inside a downtown Charleston church.

Family members of victims held hands and squeezed one another's arms as the verdicts were read. One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said "guilty."

Roof told the judge he wanted to represent himself for his sentencing, when jurors will choose between life in prison or a death sentence for the killer.

The prosecution is expected to call more than 35 witnesses, some of them relatives of the shooting victims.

Roof does not plan to call any witnesses or submit evidence for his case. He has been barred from attempting to approach the jury, the witness stand or the bench.

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