U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel presides in the same courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, where Judge Waties Waring once served. Waring is one of the central figures of Gergel's new book, “Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring” (Sarah Crichton). A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Gergel earned undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University. With his wife, Dr. Belinda Gergel, he is the author of “In Pursuit of the Tree of Life: A History of the Early Jews of Columbia, South Carolina.” Richard Gergel was a presiding judge in the trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of 33 federal charges relating to the Charleston church shooting in 2015.