Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz faces penalty trial

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The gunman who attacked a Parkland highschool in 2018 returned to court docket Monday for the penalty section of his case wherein a jury will resolve whether or not he’s sentenced to demise or life in jail with out parole. 

Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible final October to 17 counts of first-degree homicide within the deaths of 14 college students and three workers members at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. He is contesting solely his sentence. It is the nation’s deadliest mass capturing to go earlier than a jury. 

The seven-man, five-woman panel, backed up by 10 alternates, will hear the case, which is predicted to final about 4 months. The trial was supposed to start in 2020 however was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and authorized fights.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz highlighted Cruz’s brutality as he stalked a three-story classroom building, firing his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle down hallways and into school rooms. Cruz generally walked again to wounded victims and killed them with a second volley of photographs.

The prosecutor described Cruz as “chilly, calculated, manipulative and lethal,” citing a video Cruz made three days earlier than the bloodbath.

“This is what the defendant mentioned: ‘Hello, my name is Nik. I’m going to be the following faculty shooter of 2018. My aim is not less than 20 folks with an AR-15 and a few tracer rounds. It’s going to be a giant occasion, and once you see me on the news, you’ll know who I’m. You’re all going to die. Ah yeah, I can’t wait.’”

About 50 members of the family of the victims have been within the courtroom, some {couples} holding arms. Some mother and father teared up as Satz described the deaths of their youngsters. One mom, crying, received up and left. Others sat stoically, their arms folded throughout their chests. 

It wasn’t clear if anybody was current to assist Cruz, who sat on the protection desk between his attorneys. He principally seemed down at a pad of paper with a pencil in his hand, however he didn’t seem to put in writing. He would generally look as much as stare at Satz or the jury, peer on the viewers or whisper to his attorneys. 

After Satz spoke, Cruz’s attorneys introduced that they won’t give their opening assertion till it’s time to current their case weeks from now. That is a uncommon and dangerous technique as a result of it provides Satz the one say earlier than jurors study grisly proof and listen to testimony from survivors and the victims’ mother and father and spouses.

When lead defender Melisa McNeill provides her assertion, she’s going to doubtless emphasize that Cruz is a younger grownup with lifelong emotional and psychological issues who allegedly suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and abuse.

The capturing on Feb. 14, 2018, is the deadliest to succeed in trial in U.S. historical past. Nine different gunmen who killed not less than 17 folks died throughout or instantly after their shootings, both by suicide or police gunfire. The accused shooter within the 2019 slaying of 23 folks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

After opening statements, that are restricted to 90 minutes every, the prosecutors’ first witness might be referred to as. They haven’t mentioned who that might be.

It’s the primary demise penalty trial for Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer. When jurors finally get the case this fall, they’ll vote 17 instances, as soon as for every of the victims, on whether or not to advocate capital punishment.

Every vote should be unanimous; a non-unanimous vote for any one of many victims means Cruz’s sentence for that individual could be life in jail. The jurors are informed that to vote for the demise penalty, the irritating circumstances the prosecution has introduced for the sufferer in query should, of their judgment, “outweigh” mitigating elements introduced by the protection.

Regardless of the proof, any juror can vote for all times in jail out of mercy. During jury choice, the panelists mentioned underneath oath that they’re able to voting for both sentence.