Jury reaches decision on sentence of Parkland school shooter

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A jury said Thursday it reached a decision on whether to recommend the Florida school shooting. Nicholas Cruz He will be executed for the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people died.

The recommendation was not released immediately and was issued on the second day of deliberations, 15 minutes after the jury arrived and examined the gun Cruz had used.

The verdict promises to end a three-month trial that includes graphic videos, photographs, testimony of the massacre and its aftermath, heartbreaking testimony from victims’ families, and a tour of the still-splattered building. is doing.

The jury’s decision must be unanimous if it intends to recommend the death penalty, in which case it is up to Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Scherrer to make the final decision. If all jurors cannot agree to recommend the death penalty, Cruz is sentenced to life in prison.

A 12-man juror said late Wednesday, AR-15 style semi-auto riflebut the Broward County Sheriff’s Office security team objected, despite the gun being rendered inoperable and Cruz’s ammunition removed from the jury room.

Chief prosecutor Mike Sutz, with more than 50 years of experience, points out that in every murder he’s attempted or known of, jurors had to search and dispose of weapons in their rooms. and said that knives and machetes are more dangerous. A gun without a firing pin. Security has never been an issue, he said.

Cruise’s attorneys did not object to jurors seeing guns.

Cruz, 24, plead guilty A year ago, it killed 14 students and 3 staff members and injured 17 others. February 14, 2018Cruz said he chose Valentine’s day To ensure that the students of Stoneman Douglas never celebrate the holiday again. A jury will only decide if Cruz is sentenced to death or life without parole. For Cruz to be sentenced to death, the jury must be unanimous.

In the prosecution’s rebuttal, Mr. Satz and his team argue that Mr. Cruz’s smooth movement with the gun and ease of reloading, as his lawyers argue, may indicate that Mr. Cruz has a neurological disorder. He argued that it would help to show that there is no

Lead defense attorney Melissa McNeil and her team have never disputed that Cruise committed a horrific crime, but his birth mother excessive drinking .

The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting ever tried in the United States, where nine others who shot dead at least 17 people either committed suicide or were killed during or shortly after the attack by police gunfire. died in Suspect in his 23 massacre in his E in 2019 Walmart, Paso, Texas awaiting trial.