Families of Charleston church shooting victims choose to forgive suspect Dylann Roof

The federal government is seeking the death penalty for Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof but the victims' families have chosen to forgive him.

Roof is facing 33 federal charges for killing nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. He has offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence but the government refused the deal.

Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother in the tragic incident, believes that her Christian faith has called her to forgive Roof.

"My humanness is being broken, my humanness of wanting this man to be broken beyond punishment," she told The New York Times.

"You can't do that if you really say that you believe in the Bible and you believe in Jesus Christ. You can't just waver," she continued.

Other families have made statements declaring their forgiveness for Roof at the bond hearing in June last year.

"You took something very precious away from me. I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul," said Nadine Collier, daughter of a 70-year old victim named Ethel Lance.

"Tywanza was my hero. But as we say in Bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God have mercy on you," said Felicia Sanders, mother of Tywanza Sanders, who was killed in the incident along with his aunt.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced her decision to seek the death penalty against Roof last May. She said that the nature of the crime and its resulting casualties were the main factors that influenced her decision.

A federal judge ruled last week that Roof is mentally fit to stand trial after his lawyers questioned his mental capacity to participate in the court proceedings. Earlier this week, the Judge Richard Gergel granted Roof's request to represent himself in his hate crimes trial.

The judge considered the move to be unwise but he said that Roof had the right to make the decision and he said that the defendant had the capacity to represent himself.