FORT LAUDERDALE — The gunman who murdered 17 folks at a Parkland excessive school practically 5 years in the past has spent the final 9 weeks in the custody of the Florida of Corrections.
Where? That’s anybody’s guess.
In an unusually secretive transfer, the state has refused to reveal the location of convicted killer Nikolas Cruz, 24, who was sentenced to 34 consecutive life phrases for the murders and tried murders he dedicated at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. The sentencing got here at the finish of a extremely publicized trial that led to October with the jury failing to achieve unanimous settlement on placing the defendant to demise.
Cruz’s personal attorneys stated the jury’s act of mercy stood in stark distinction to the defendant’s personal actions at the school, however some relations of the victims overtly wished for the gunman’s fellow inmates to do what the state now can’t — make Cruz pay for his crimes along with his life.
That is the likeliest purpose the defendant’s whereabouts haven’t been disclosed. The Florida Department of Corrections is permitted below state regulation to withhold information that will ordinarily be disclosed if publishing the information creates a safety danger.
“You’re talking about someone who could easily be murdered by another inmate,” stated Ron McAndrew, a retired Florida jail warden who is now an professional witness on the corrections system. “They’re going to do everything they can to keep him alive. Too many inmates have nothing to lose.”
There is an alternative choice — Florida is considered one of many states that take part in the Interstate Prison Compact, an settlement to successfully alternate high-profile prisoners when lives is likely to be at stake. Multiple sources say Cruz is not a part of that program and that he stays in Florida.
The Florida Department of Corrections didn’t reply to a request for remark Tuesday.