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The judge who started a bond hearing for Dylann Roof with a call for compassion for the suspected gunman’s family has been reprimanded for courtroom racism before.
EXPRESSED SYMPATHY FOR ALLEGED KILLER'S FAMILY
During Friday's bond hearing for Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man accused of killing nine people in a an African-American church in Charleston, the judge became emotional — but not because he was about to hear from family members of the people who were killed Wednesday evening.
“There are victims on this young man’s side of the family,” Gosnell said.
“Nobody would have ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they are being thrown into,” he said. “We must find it in our heart at some point in time not only to help those that are victims but to also help his family as well.”
HE WAS REPRIMANDED BY STATE SUPREME COURT
Gosnell was reprimanded by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2005 for using the n-word during a court hearing in 2003.
He told a black defendant, ““There are four kinds of people in this world—black people, white people, red necks, and n---rs.”
Gosnell said he thought it was okay for him to say that because he had heard it from an African American sheriff’s deputy and his intention was to tell the defendant to correct his behavior.
Gosnell was the magistrate judge for Friday's arraignment and is not expected to be involved in the case against Dylann Roof going forward.
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