Jury reaches verdict on Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz sentence

[cato potatoe]

That juror is not going to be a popular individual if he/she lives anywhere near the school.

[mystery-ak]

 October 14, 2022 3:09pm EDT
Parkland jurors send complaints to DA, judge following inability to agree to death penalty for Nikolas Cruz
Nikolas Cruz is expected to face a sentence of life in prison for the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre
By Michael Ruiz | Fox News

   Convicted Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz returned to court for a surprise post-deliberation hearing Friday after jurors squabbling over whether he should be put to death sent complaints to the judge and prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors alerted the court Thursday that a juror had received an alleged threat during deliberations and asked for an investigation.

"It may be nothing, but it may be something," Assistant State Attorney Carolyn McCann told the court.

In a letter to the judge, a different juror claimed she was accused by other jurors of deciding on life imprisonment "before the trial started" and never considering the death penalty for the school shooting attack, which left 17 dead on Valentine’s Day in 2018 — a date Cruz said he picked in order to ruin the holiday for the community in perpetuity.

"This allegation is untrue, and I maintained my oath to the court that I would be fair and unbiased," the juror wrote.

Florida Judge Elizabeth Scherer also said that two jurors had asked her after the end of the hearing Thursday to speak with her. She said she told them that was not appropriate and thought the matter was over.

However, prosecutor Michael Satz’s office filed a motion to interview a juror after getting a message from one of the jurors claiming she received "what she perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror while in the jury room."

Prosecutors said that rather than having the state attorney’s office interview the juror, due to the possibility of a crime having been committed, he wanted police to conduct the interview.

"We are not seeking to set aside the verdict," McCann told the court Friday. "However, the allegation by a juror where they leave a message that they have received what they have perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror in the jury room cannot be ignored. This is a safety issue."

The juror who left the message is not the same juror who sent Scherer the note, McCann added.

The judge said she had given the information to the sheriff’s office and a potential investigation would be up to them.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

more
https://www.foxnews.com/us/parkland-jurors-send-complaints-da-judge-following-inability-agree-death-penalty-nikolas-cruz

[Hoodat]

It is wrong for a governor to publicly demean a jury... it is hard, especially when the death penalty is possible.  These folks do not volunteer for this and they do the best their conscience will allow.  I don't agree with the sentence but I was not there and it was not my job to render a verdict.

Jury duty is no picnic.  It is also the only thing in our free Republic where one can be compelled to give part of his/her life to others.

[Right_in_Virginia]

October 13, 2022 3:53pm EDT
DeSantis reacts to Parkland shooter life sentence: ‘You deserve the death penalty’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz is being treated the same as criminals who broke the law but not on the order of premeditated mass killing

By Bradford Betz | Fox News

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday weighed in on the life sentence verdict of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, saying the death penalty would have been more appropriate.

"I think that if you have a death penalty at all, that that is a case, where you’re massacring those students, with premeditation and utter disregard for humanity, that you deserve the death penalty," DeSantis said during a press conference.

DeSantis said Cruz’s life sentence means that he will get the same sentence as people who have committed bad acts but not at the level of premeditated mass murder.

"I just don’t think anything else is appropriate except a capital sentence in this case. And so, I was very disappointed to see that," DeSantis said before criticizing the amount of time it took since the shooting to reach a verdict.

more
https://www.foxnews.com/us/desantis-reacts-parkland-shooter-life-sentence-deserve-death-penalty

Parkland shooter’s life sentence could bring changes to law
Associated Press, Oct 15, 2022

[...]

Florida’s law allowing for a majority jury vote had been in place for decades before it was overturned, but it was an outlier. Almost all death penalty states required unanimity throughout those years or adopted it. Alabama allows a death sentence after a 10-2 vote. Missouri and Indiana allow the judge to decide if jurors unanimously agree the aggravating circumstances exist but can’t agree on a sentence.

Then in 2016, by an 8-1 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Florida’s law, saying the judge had too much weight in the decision.

The Legislature passed a bill requiring a 10-2 jury recommendation, but the state Supreme Court overturned it. In 2017, the law was changed to require a unanimous jury.

Three years later, however, DeSantis, a Republican, replaced three retiring Florida justices with more conservative jurists and the state court rescinded the earlier decision. It said a death recommendation no longer needed to be unanimous, but legislators through three annual sessions haven’t changed the law back from unanimity. DeSantis never pushed them.


More:  https://apnews.com/article/education-florida-fort-lauderdale-parkland-school-shooting-nikolas-cruz-00236189b15be05809300d543e32ee63