FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Washington Insider Magazine) – Monday’s opening comments and the first evidence related to the 2018 shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 14 students and 3 members of staff dead, will be heard by the jury in Nikolas Cruz’s punishment trial.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz is likely to highlight Cruz’s cruelty as he stalked a 3-story educational facility, discharging his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle through halls and into classrooms. The 5-woman, 7-man panel is backed up by ten alternates. Cruz would sometimes return to injured victims and shoot them with a second barrage of gunshots.
Cruz, 23, pled guilty to 17 charges of first-degree murder in October; the only aspect of the trial he is challenging is the prosecution’s demand for the death penalty. The only possible sentences for the shootings on February 14, 2018, are death or life in life in prison without parole. The former Stoneman Douglas student’s trial, which was scheduled to start in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak and legal disputes, was anticipated to continue for around 4 months.
The defense attorneys won’t disclose when they will make their opening remarks, When the trial will begin or when they will start presenting their argument weeks from now. The latter tactic would be uncommon and dangerous because it would provide the prosecution final authority before jurors looked at gruesome evidence and heard moving testimony from gunshot survivors and the spouses and parents of the victims.
When Cruz’s lead attorney Melisa McNeill makes her statement, she’ll likely focus on the fact that Cruz is a young adult with ongoing psychiatric and emotional issues who reportedly experienced abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome. The idea is to calm the jurors’ sentiments as they listen to the prosecution’s argument, preparing them to be more receptive to the defense’s points of contention later on.
The Parkland massacre is the deadliest in American history to go to trial. Nine more shooters who contributed to at least 17 fatalities perished during or right after their attacks, either by suicide or police shooting. The accused in the 2019 murders of 23 individuals at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting judgement.
The first witness for the prosecution will be summoned after opening statements, which are restricted to 90 minutes apiece, according to ABC NEWS. Who will be that has not been disclosed.
This fall, when the jury finally hears the case, it will vote on whether to propose the death sentence 17 times—once for each of the deceased.
Every vote has to be unanimous; if any victim receives a non-unanimous decision, Cruz would receive a life term in jail. The prosecution’s aggravating circumstances for the victim in issue must, in the jurors’ opinion, exceed the defense’s mitigating factors in order for them to vote for death penalty.
Any jury may decide in favor of life imprisonment out of pity regardless of the facts. The panel members testified under oath that they are competent to vote for either penalty during jury selection.
