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The Latest: Prosecutor: State should try Dylann Roof first

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Latest on legal developments in the case against Dylann Roof, who is charged with fatally shooting nine black parishioners in Charleston last year (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

A prosecutor is asking that the state trial of the man accused of fatally shooting nine black parishioners in a Charleston church be held before his federal trial.

In a request filed in state court Tuesday, state prosecutor Scarlett Wilson argued that the state has primary jurisdiction in the case.

Currently, a federal trial for Dylann Roof is set for November. The state trial is set for January 2017.

Wilson is also going to be prosecuting the state murder trial of former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, who is accused of shooting black motorist Walter Scott in April 2015.

That trial is set for Oct. 31 and will likely be underway at the same time as Roof’s federal trial.

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9:30 a.m.

Federal prosecutors in South Carolina want to know what mitigating factors the defence plans to present during the sentencing phase of the death penalty trial of accused Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.

Prosecutors said in court documents filed Monday such disclosure before the trial was ordered in the Boston Marathon bombing case. Prosecutors say providing the information beforehand will allow the government to investigate defence claims and help seat an impartial jury.

Mitigating circumstances such as drug abuse or mental illness relied on in sentencing are generally not required to be revealed until after a defendant is found guilty.

But the government wants the judge to order the defence to reveal such factors by Oct. 1. The 22-year-old Roof stands trial Nov. 7 in the slayings of nine parishioners at Emanuel AME Church.

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