The months-long US trial will resolve whether or not Nikolas Cruz can be executed or sentenced to life with out parole.
Opening arguments have begun within the penalty section of the trial of Nikolas Cruz, the person who killed 17 individuals at a Florida highschool on February 14, 2018 – one of many deadliest college shootings in United States historical past.
About 50 relations of the victims have been within the courtroom on Monday, sitting collectively in a roped-off part. It was not clear if anybody, other than Cruz’s defence attorneys, was there to assist him. The trial, which is anticipated to final about 4 months, was supposed to start in 2020, however the COVID-19 pandemic and authorized fights delayed it.
The seven-man, five-woman panel, backed up by 10 alternates, will hear from lead prosecutor Mike Satz, who is anticipated to spotlight Cruz’s brutality as he stalked a three-story classroom constructing, firing his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle down hallways and into lecture rooms. Cruz typically walked again to wounded victims and killed them with a second volley of pictures.
Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible in October to the premeditated homicide of 14 college students and three employees members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, about 48km (30 miles) north of town of Fort Lauderdale.
An expelled scholar with a historical past of psychological well being and behavioural issues on the time of the capturing, Cruz stated in his responsible plea that he was “very sorry” and requested to be given an opportunity to assist others.
The trial comes as gun violence within the US has gotten renewed consideration following a spate of latest mass shootings together with one at an Independence Day parade exterior Chicago, Illinois that killed seven individuals, and one other in Could at a faculty in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 youngsters and two academics useless.
The Parkland capturing is the deadliest to succeed in trial in US historical past. 9 different gunmen who killed not less than 17 individuals died throughout or instantly after their shootings, both by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect within the 2019 slaying of 23 individuals at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas is awaiting trial.
US President Joe Biden in June signed the primary main federal gun reform laws in three many years, which he has celebrated as a uncommon bipartisan settlement.
At a White Home occasion final week to herald the regulation’s passage, Biden was interrupted by Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Oliver shouted “we’ve already gone via this for years and years” and stated extra must be completed.
A Parkland sufferer's father interrupted President Biden's speech on the brand new gun invoice, which doesn't embody an assault weapons ban: "It's important to do greater than that."
Manuel Oliver's son Joaquin was killed at Parkland.
There have been over 130 college shootings since then. pic.twitter.com/KtU0OECKCj
— AJ+ (@ajplus) July 11, 2022
A jury will now decide whether or not Cruz must be sentenced to life in jail or obtain the demise penalty.
When jurors ultimately get the case later this yr, they may vote 17 instances, as soon as for every of the victims, on whether or not to suggest capital punishment.
Each vote have to be unanimous. A non-unanimous vote for any one of many victims means Cruz’s sentence for that particular person could be life in jail. The jurors are advised that to vote for the demise penalty, the irritating circumstances the prosecution has introduced for the sufferer in query should, of their judgement, “outweigh” mitigating elements introduced by the defence.
Prosecutors on the Broward County State Legal professional’s Workplace, in arguing for the demise penalty, have famous in court docket paperwork that the capturing involving an AR-15 rifle was “chilly, calculated and premeditated”.
Some youngsters who survived the lethal rampage fashioned March For Our Lives (MFOL), an organisation calling for gun management laws equivalent to a ban on assault-style rifles.
Cruz was 18 when he legally bought the rifle from a licensed gun seller.
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