“You are, in effect, playing to one juror - you just don’t know which,” O’Mara said. The bottom line: A case like Cruz’s has no certainties for the defense. “When you get to that kind of analysis, you get away from what the defense wants: the humanity” of the jurors and the defendant, he said. Such professionals use a mental scale to precisely weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors - a battle Cruz cannot win with 17 dead victims, he said. He said he would avoid accountants, engineers and others whose occupations require “very precise” answers. O’Mara said he might seek racial minorities and jurors with relatives who have been criminal defendants because they might be “more sensitized to the inconsistencies and biases of the judicial system.” “Someone who says they have no views on a shooting where innocent children were killed is not being. “Anyone who tells you repeatedly they are going to be fair, that they have no biases, that they have no preexisting views on this case, is likely hiding something,” she said.
Instead, she said she would look closely for “stealth jurors”: candidates who skew answers to be picked so they can vote for death. Scherer has indicated she might add more, given the case’s high profile.įischman said that if she were advising the defense, she wouldn’t preclude any occupations, ages or economic groups. Cruz’s attorneys might challenge school employees, for example, or someone with a relative who died at the hands of another.īoth sides receive 10 preemptory strikes for any reason except race or gender. That change gives Cruz a chance, but the jury’s composition is key, O’Mara and Fischman note.īoth prosecutors and defense attorneys can strike a potential juror if they are able to persuade Scherer that the person’s answers or background demonstrates unfairness. This is the system used in 18 of the 26 other states with capital punishment. and Florida supreme courts mandated a higher bar, the Republican-majority Legislature amended the law to require unanimity. Until 2016, a Florida judge could impose the death penalty if a majority of jurors agreed. The other half said they could be just, but the process ended with Cruz’s sudden guilty plea.
About half said they couldn’t judge Cruz fairly, and three women cried just seeing him. Instead of deciding whether someone is guilty based upon objective evidence, jurors sitting at this death penalty trial must answer a subjective question: Have prosecutors shown that aggravating factors - the number of deaths, the weeks of planning and the cruelty and horror of Cruz’s actions - outweigh mitigating factors such as his lifelong mental illness and the death of his parents? For Cruz to get death, the jurors must all answer, “yes.”Īlmost 300 prospective jurors were screened, 10 times what is typical in a Florida assault case. They will then return in a few weeks for courtroom interviews, where they must declare that they are able to vote for the death penalty but also don’t believe it should be mandatory for murder.Ĭruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 first-degree murders, 17 attempted murders and a jail assault, leaving the jury to decide only whether the former Stoneman Douglas student gets death or life without parole. Jury candidates who declare that they can be objective will complete a questionnaire that dives into their backgrounds and asks whether they can handle viewing graphic evidence. The poster also said he spoke to ROF leadership about. The person claimed they left the ROF because of the violent views that Nikolas and people like him were pushing. O’Mara rose to national prominence after his successful 2013 defense of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murdering Black teenager Trayvon Martin. Nikolas Cruz was a revolutionary member of the Republic of Florida, who preached twisted and dark things like terrorism and attacking innocent people, the poster said. and ate his entire meal.Cruz’s attorneys “should not even try to get a jury or juror who doesn’t know about the case because that is ignorance you would have to be living under a rock,” said Orlando defense attorney Mark O’Mara. Deputies described his appearance as relaxed and his behavior as cooperative.
Cruz has a high-profile case and is on suicide watch,” Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes said in a statement.Ĭruz is housed in a single-man cell in the infirmary, three days after the massacre in Parkland. “They are snippet observations from corrections officers and are not clinical impressions made by his treating psychologist or psychiatrist at the jail. His lawyer cautioned against reading too much into the notes. Nikolas Cruz's brother regrets bullying school shooter, police report saysĭeputies outlined Cruz’s movements and interactions in brief one-liners and checked boxes throughout their shifts. (Photo by Mike Stocker-Pool/Getty Images) Pool/Getty Images North America/Getty Images Cruz is facing 17 charges of premeditated murder in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. LAUDERDALE - FEBRUARY 19: Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on Februin Ft.
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