Protection urges Florida jury to spare lifetime of Parkland college shooter

FILE PHOTO – Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College shooter Nikolas Cruz holds his head in the course of the penalty part of Cruz’s trial on the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. August 4, 2022. Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Solar Sentinel/Pool by way of REUTERS

Aug 22 (Reuters) – A protection legal professional on Monday implored a Florida jury to spare the lifetime of Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 individuals in a 2018 highschool mass taking pictures within the metropolis of Parkland, citing mind injury linked to fetal drug and alcohol publicity as cause to not impose the dying penalty.

Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible final October to committing premeditated homicide at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Fort Lauderdale, in one of many deadliest college shootings in U.S. historical past. Cruz killed 14 college students and three employees members. learn extra

Melisa McNeil, Cruz’s lead public defender, informed the 12 Broward County jurors that Cruz ought to obtain life in jail with out parole on account of mitigating components together with lifelong developmental delays and mental-health issues that arose from his organic mom’s drug and alcohol abuse throughout being pregnant.

“Due to that, his mind was irretrievably damaged, via no fault of his personal,” McNeil informed the jury.

McNeil mentioned she would current witnesses together with individuals who knew him and medical specialists throughout a trial wherein jurors should determine whether or not to condemn him to dying or to life in jail with out chance of parole.

Prosecutor Michael Satz informed jurors in July that Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled pupil on the time of the shootings, ought to be put to dying for “goal-directed, deliberate, systematic homicide – mass homicide – of 14 college students, an athletic director, a instructor and a coach.” learn extra

McNeil on Monday acknowledged the horror of Cruz’s crime however reminded the jurors that they have been beneath no obligation to vote for dying even “within the worst case conceivable. And it’s controversial that that is the worst case conceivable.”

Underneath Florida regulation, a jury have to be unanimous in its determination to suggest {that a} choose sentence Cruz to be executed.

Cruz mentioned when he pleaded responsible that he was “very sorry” and requested to be given an opportunity to assist others. learn extra

The beginning final month of the trial’s penalty part included testimony from college students who have been at college that day and cellphone movies wherein terrified college students cried for assist or spoke in hushed whispers as they hid.

U.S. gun violence gained renewed consideration following latest mass shootings. These embody one in July at an Independence Day parade exterior Chicago that killed seven individuals, one in Could at a faculty in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 kids and two lecturers lifeless, and one in Could at a grocery store in a predominately Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 individuals.

President Joe Biden in June signed the primary main federal gun reform laws in three many years, which he referred to as a uncommon bipartisan achievement. learn extra

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Julia Harte; enhancing by Will Dunham, Donna Bryson and Jonathan Oatis

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.