CHARLESTON, S.C. — A month after U.S. Judge Richard Gergel found now-convicted killer Dylann Roof competent to stand trial, Gergel has ordered another mental competency hearing for him Monday.

That hearing is at the request of Roof’s legal team, whom Roof has currently sidelined by telling the judge he wants to be his own lawyer in the second, or penalty, phase of the trial.

Roof has said he will present no witnesses.

The penalty phase is due to begin Tuesday. The jury that will determine whether Roof should be executed or given life without parole this month found Roof guilty in the 2015 hate-crime killings of nine African-Americans in a Bible study class at a Charleston church.

Roof has invoked his constitutional right to be his own lawyer in the penalty phase and made it clear he doesn’t want any evidence offered to the jury about his possible mental problems. That’s a position his attorneys, led by death penalty expert David Bruck, have indicated they believe is symptomatic of Roof’s mental instability.

At a two-day closed competency hearing in November, Gergel heard testimony about Roof’s mental fitness to stand trial and ruled that he was.

Being found legally competent to stand criminal trial basically means that a person understands the charges against him and can participate in his own defense.

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