A last-ditch effort to block the removal of a monument to a Confederate general in New Orleans was rejected Wednesday by a Louisiana judge who turned away arguments that the city doesn't own the statue or the land on which it sits.

Dylann Roof, the convicted shooter in the assault on Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left a total of 12 victims, killing nine of them, was sentenced to death on Tuesday. 

A jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially-motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina. The verdict was reached not long after deliberations began on Thursday.