CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Prosecutors in South Carolina are seeking the death penalty for a man who they say tortured an acquaintance before killing him three years ago.
At opening arguments in Charleston County on Thursday, lawyers for 32-year-old William Dickerson said he is a scapegoat for others who killed 29-year-old Gerard Roper in a James Island apartment in March 2006.
But prosecutors say Dickerson removed two of Roper's teeth and burned and sexually assaulted him before strangling him.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that Dickerson's trial is the first death penalty trial in Charleston County in five years.
Dickerson's father died in prison in October 2001, where he was serving time after being convicted in a 1996 stabbing death.
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