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Charlotte City Council member responds to death penalty sentence being upheld for Dylann Roof

Malcolm Graham's sister, Cynthia Marie Graham-Hurd, was one of the nine victims that died during the Charleston church shooting in 2015.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —

Wednesday was bittersweet for Charlotte City Councilman Malcolm Graham, as a federal appeals court upheld the death penalty sentence and murder conviction for Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine Black people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015. 

Roof killed nine members of Mother Emanuel AME, a historically Black church in the heart of downtown Charleston. In 2017, he became the first person in the U.S. to be sentenced for a federal hate crime, according to WLTX in Columbia

Graham's sister, Cynthia Marie Graham-Hurd, was one of the victims killed in the shooting. He spoke with WCNC Charlotte just hours after Roof's sentence and conviction were upheld in court. 

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RELATED: Charleston church massacre shooter loses appeal of death sentence conviction

“It’s bittersweet, right,” Graham said. “I sat through the trial for well over four months ... was there when the verdict came down from the jury of death. I thought it was appropriate then, and I think it's appropriate now. We live in a society of laws and the rule of law has to come into play. It says really loud and clear that racism, bigotry and discrimination that leads to death should be met with death.”  

RELATED: Malcolm Graham: My sister was victim of senseless hate crime

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams, one of the lead prosecutors on the case, said the mass shooting was one of the worst events in South Carolina’s history, according to a report from the Associated Press. 

“Our office is grateful for the decision of the court, a decision that ensures, as the Court stated, that ‘the harshest penalty a just society can impose’ is indeed imposed,” Williams said in a statement. 

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