Several hundred people yesterday reported for jury selection at the US courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina in the death penalty case against Dylann Roof, who has been charged with shooting dead nine black parishioners in a church in June 2015.
Prosecutors have said Roof, 22, is an avowed white supremacist who carried out a racially motivated attack. Defence lawyers have said he would plead guilty if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, which they claim is unconstitutional.
Roof sat in shackles and kept his head down as the US District Judge, Richard Gergel, explained the time-line for the federal trial, which begins on 7 November.
Roof faces 33 counts of hate crimes, obstruction of religion and firearms charges in the shooting deaths of the parishioners during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
Twelve jurors and six alternates will be chosen from a total of 3,000 people summoned from several counties for the trial. The final jury panel will be selected after a smaller group is questioned further in court in November.
Jurors will not be sequestered, but the court will pay for their hotel rooms in Charleston, Gergel said.
The judge urged people to avoid researching the case or talking to anyone about it but acknowledged that the killings had received wide publicity.
"I know that many of you have seen, read or heard about this case," Gergel said.
Roof also faces murder and attempted murder charges in state court, with jury selection in that trial set for January.
Roof has been housed at the Charleston County detention centre since being returned from North Carolina a day after the killings on 17 June 2015.
Prosecutors have said that Roof was trying to make his way to Nashville, Tennessee, after the shootings.
Prosecutors have also said that Roof discussed starting a race war and posed with the controversial Confederate battle flag before the killings.
Additional reporting by Reuters
