Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz’s death penalty hearing could be declared a mistrial over jury debate

Seventeen students and staff members were killed in Florida school mass shooting in 2018

School-Shooting-Florida (© South Florida Sun Sentinel 2022)

The death penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who murdered 17 students and staff members in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, appears to be headed towards mistrial, just two days into jury selection.

Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has already pleaded guilty to the murders at his high school. The jury will now decide if he receives the death penalty or a lifetime of imprisonment.

For Cruz to receive the death penalty, the jurors must all unanimously agree. If any one of the 12 jurors does not agree that factors such as the number of people killed, the premeditation or the cruelty unleashed on the 17 people murdered that day amount to a death sentence, then Cruz will receive a life sentence without parole.

But defence attorneys for 23-year-old Cruz are expected to request for the process to start over again after they raised concerns about the dismissal of 11 potential jurors.

Broward Circuit judge Elizabeth Scherer excused the 11 prospective jurors after they said they could not follow the law in deciding whether to give the shooter the death penalty.

The defence questioned why they did not get the chance to question them before they were released.

Defence attorneys sought 24 hours to consider whether to raise a mistrial motion. The judge, however, offered about 10 minutes, leading to a tense exchange between the lawyers and the judge. They were eventually given until Wednesday to decide.

“These are people that said they cannot and will not follow the law that I excused back to the jury room to serve on another case and the jury room immediately excused them,” Judge Scherer told the prosecution and defence teams.

Bringing back the jurors who were previously dismissed would be seen as a possible procedural misstep because it could possibly allow the recalled jurors to freely discuss the case with friends and family members.

On Tuesday, the judge ruled that the jury will be granted permission to tour the blood-stained school building that has been fenced off and sealed from the public since the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre.

The blood on the ground where people were shot and the holes in the wall still remain untouched, according to reports.

Cruz’s defence had argued that a tour of the facilities was unnecessary, given the fact that their client had pleaded guilty.