The Briefing Room
General Category => Crime And Punishment => Topic started by: mystery-ak on October 13, 2022, 02:14:33 pm
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Published October 13, 2022 9:49am EDT
Jury reaches verdict on Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz sentence
Nikolas Cruz carried out massacre at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day 2018
By Louis Casiano , Stephen Sorace | Fox News
A Broward County, Florida jury reached a verdict Wednesday on determine whether Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz should be executed for the 2018 school massacre.
The jury's recommendation is expected to be read at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 – a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine's Day again.
Cruz fired volleys from an AR-15-style semi-automatic down hallways and into classrooms for about seven minutes, returning to those who lay wounded to kill them.
Cruz said he purchased the rifle almost exactly a year before the shooting and began to seriously plan it about seven months in advance.
At one point in the deliberations, jurors came back to the courtroom to have the testimony of two doctors read back to them about the mental state of Cruz.
more
https://www.foxnews.com/us/jury-verdict-parkland-school-shooter-nikolas-cruz-sentence
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Verdict
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
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22s
JUST IN - Jury recommends the death penalty for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
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Verdict
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
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22s
JUST IN - Jury recommends the death penalty for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Good....
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Travis Akers
@travisakers
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36s
Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has been sentenced to DEATH.
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Good. Now take him out back and git er done.
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https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1580576222026731520
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So which is it?
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Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
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10m
JUST IN - Jury recommends a sentence to life without parole on all 17 counts for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
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So which is it?
Life in prison unless the judge changes it...
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A Broward County, Florida jury recommended Wednesday that Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz should get life in prison but not the death penalty in some counts.
The decisions in the other counts are still being read.
The jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a recommendation for the death penalty in the initial counts.
The verdict came in the second day of deliberations, 15 minutes after jurors arrived and examined the gun Cruz used.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 – a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine's Day again.
Cruz fired volleys from an AR-15-style semi-automatic down hallways and into classrooms for about seven minutes, returning to those who lay wounded to kill them.
more
https://www.foxnews.com/us/jury-verdict-parkland-school-shooter-nikolas-cruz-sentence
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Life in prison unless the judge changes it...
I heard on Court TV that the Judge can change death to life but not life to death.
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Sorry for the confusion..looks like several news agencies were wrong in reporting the verdicts..
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No Death Penalty, No Parole — Jury Recommends Life Sentence for Parkland Shooter
A jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reached a decision in the penalty phase of Parkland attacker Nikolas Cruz’s trial Thursday, recommending a life sentence.
AWR Hawkins 13 Oct 2022
A jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, reached a decision in the trial of Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz Thursday, recommending a life sentence without possibility of parole for the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School attacker.
The jury was required to be unanimous for a death penalty recommendation, and at least one juror withheld support for the death penalty in the 17 verdicts for the murder victims.
ABC News reported that Cruz “pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.”
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer read the verdict dealing with each victim, each of which cited “mitigating circumstances” preventing a death penalty decision.
Thursday’s verdict came in the penalty phase of Cruz’s trial, after ABC News indicated his attorneys pointed out “failures in his upbringing.”
CNN noted that Cruz’s lawyers asked “jurors to spare the life of [Cruz],” asking them not to make decisions based on emotion.
Attorney Melisa McNeill, Cruz’s lead attorney, “asked jurors to sentence her client to life in prison, not the death penalty.”
Judge Scherer set sentencing of Cruz for November 1, Tuesday, at 9 a.m.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/10/13/verdict-no-death-penalty-jury-recommends-life-sentence-parkland-shooter/
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WPEC (https://cbs12.com/news/local/nikolas-cruz-jury-decides-life-death-sentence-recommendation-school-killer-jurors-deliberating-killer-question-judge-elizabeth-scherer-parkland-marjory-stoneman-douglas-circuit-court#)) — The jury recommends life sentence for Nikolas Cruz for Parkland massacre.
The jury considered 17 counts for the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February of 2018.
At least one juror found that mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors laid forth by the state, meaning the judge is unable to sentence Cruz to death. ...
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Oh goodie, we're keeping this piece of shit alive?
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Oh goodie, we're keeping this piece of shit alive?
Put him into the general population, and the problem will sort itself out soon enough.
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Put him into the general population, and the problem will sort itself out soon enough.
Agree. This will sort out one way or another regardless of what some feckless Liberal jury says.
If they put him is solitary, after a few years he will be praying for death. If they put him in G-Pop he will get his wish.
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Agree. This will sort out one way or another regardless of what some feckless Liberal jury says.
If they put him is solitary, after a few years he will be praying for death. If they put him in G-Pop he will get his wish.
I don't think there's any need to call it a "feckless liberal jury" - for two reasons: (1) it appears that there was only one holdout, and (2) there is much to dislike about the death penalty as a general proposition, and there is a very principled position to prefer life sentences over the death penalty even in cases where it is "clear" the penalty is merited.
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Gov Desantis comments on the 11 to 1 vote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I00wIYs1mjo
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The do-gooders next goal is to do away with Life Without Parole.
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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.
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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.
Can't wait to see her on MSNBC explaining her vote.
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From post 12 above:
"No Death Penalty, No Parole — Jury Recommends Life Sentence for Parkland Shooter"
We won't be here, but you know, sure as ----, that 40 years from now, he'll be paroled.
If not sooner.
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Ezekiel 13:19
And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
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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.
The jury's decision came after seven hours of deliberations over two days, ending a three-month trial that included graphic videos and photos from the massacre and its aftermath, heart-wrenching testimony from victims' family members and a tour of the still blood-spattered building. The decision left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears.
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
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That juror is not going to be a popular individual if he/she lives anywhere near the school.
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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
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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.
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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