Dylann Roof Is Willing to Plead Guilty in Charleston Massacre Case, Says Lawyer

A lawyer for Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old South Carolina man facing the death penalty for murdering nine people during Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June, announced that his client would be willing to plead guilty to murder charges if it would spare him from execution.

Roof initially intended to plead guilty at his arraignment on federal hate crime and firearm charges on July 31, but his legal team decided to wait until US prosecutors announced whether they planned to seek the death penalty. Scarlett Wilson, solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, confirmed that she will pursue that course in a court document she filed earlier this month.

"We all agree that forgiveness can be an important part of the healing process," Wilson said at a press conference at the time, "but forgiveness does not mean forgoing consequences, even severe consequences."

Related: Dylann Roof Will Face the Death Penalty When He Goes on Trial

Bill McGuire, the chief death penalty attorney for the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense who is serving as one of Roof's lawyers, declared on Wednesday that Roof would plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole. He suggested that this would also serve to spare the victims' families and survivors of the shooting from having to endure a lengthy trial.

The development emerged during a hearing in Charleston concerning whether a judge will release 911 emergency telephone calls and police reports about the June 17 massacre.

Following the hearing, prosecutors declined to comment about whether they would accept a guilty plea from Roof. The judge did not rule on the release of material on Wednesday, but indicated that he would likely release some investigative items in the state's murder case against Roof that he had earlier deemed too graphic for public consumption.

In addition to state murder charges, Roof faces 33 federal hate crime and weapons charges that also could result in a death sentence.

The federal charges are based on evidence that Roof targeted the black victims because of their race and "in order to interfere with their exercise of religion," according to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Related: Charleston Shooter Dylann Roof Indicted on Federal Hate Crime Charges

The mass murder sparked a national conversation about racism. Photos of Roof posing with the Confederate flag circulated on social media, leading to a vote by South Carolina's legislature to remove the rebel flag from a memorial on the state capitol grounds.

On Tuesday, Columbia's The State newspaper reported that Joe Meek, a friend who allowed Roof to stay at his home in the weeks ahead of the killings, is a "potential target" in the federal investigation. Meek informed reporters in June that Roof had earlier said that he "wanted something to spark up the race war."

The FBI is investigating Meek for allegedly making false statements and concealing knowledge of a crime from authorities, the paper said, citing a letter he received from federal investigators.

Reuters contributed to this report.