A 21-year-old white man, Dylann Roof who killed nine persons in Charlston church has been charged with nine counts of murder for an attack on a historic black South Carolina church.
Reports quoted him saying he had hoped his actions would incite a race war in the United States.
The Charleston Police Department said Dylann Roof is due to face a bail hearing later on Friday, where he will appear by video link and also face a charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
The charges come a day after his arrest in North Carolina, 220 miles (354 km) north of the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where he shot dead nine black worshippers.
U.S. officials are investigating Roof's attack, in which four ministers were killed including a Democratic state senator, as a hate crime. It came in a year of turmoil in the United States, where police killings of several unarmed black men has provoked angry national debates about race relations, policing and the criminal justice system.
Roof confessed to the attack and said he intended to set off new racial confrontations with his attack, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that she would prefer to see Roof tried on state charges and believed state prosecutors should pursue a death sentence.
South Carolina is one of just five U.S. states that does not have a hate crime law, which typically imposes additional penalties on crimes committed because of a victim's race, gender or sexual orientation.
President Barack Obama said Thursday the attack stirred up "a dark part" of U.S. history and illustrated the continuing dangers of the nation's liberal gun laws, which gun-rights supporters say are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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