Daily Southtown (Sunday)

Fla. school shooting trial in limbo

3 years later, virus, size of Parkland case are key factors

- By Curt Anderson

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s been more than 1,000 days since a gunman with an AR-15 rifle burst into a Florida high school, killed 17 people and wounded 17 others.

Yet, with Valentine’s Day on Sunday marking the three-year milestone, the trial of 22-year-old Nikolas Cruz is in limbo.

One reason is the coronaviru­s, which has shut court operations down and made in-person jail access difficult for the defense.

Another is the sheer magnitude of the case, with hundreds of witnesses from Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The case could have been all over by now. Cruz’s lawyers have repeatedly said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. But prosecutor­s won’t budge on seeking the death penalty at trial.

“We are dedicated to ensuring that justice is done and we are working diligently to ensure that the criminal trial begins as soon as possible,” said Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor, who was elected in November.

The longtime state attorney he replaced, Michael Satz, is staying on to personally prosecute Cruz. Satz has said Cruz’s fate must be decided by a jury, not by Cruz himself through a guilty plea.

Parents of those slain and wounded are divided over the death penalty, said Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed in the shooting and who is president of the victims’ family group Stand With Parkland.

There’s no doubt where Montalto stands.

“The option for a long life was not given to our children and spouses — it was taken that day,” Montalto said. “Society in general should demand that someone who attacked the most vulnerable, our children, at their school, a place of learning, should be held ultimately accountabl­e. Our families have already paid the ultimate price.”

Michael Schulman, the father of shooting victim Scott Beigel — a school cross-country coach and geography teacher hailed for protecting students — wrote a newspaper opinion piece in which he said it would be better for everyone if Cruz could plead guilty and be locked away for life.

“Going for the death penalty will not bring our loved ones back to us. It will not make the physical scars of those wounded go away,” Schulman wrote.

Even in the best of times, death penalty cases typically

take years to go to trial. In Broward County, the average time between arrest and trial is about 3 ½ years. Some complex cases have taken up to 10 years to get to trial.

“Even if we didn’t have the pandemic to contend with, getting a death penalty case with this many victims to trial, in Florida, would have taken at least this long,” said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Miami. “The deposition process alone can take years, and then there are the experts and mitigation specialist­s.”

If Cruz is convicted and sentenced to death, the appeals would probably stretch for decades. It’s also possible the case could get reversed and sent back for another sentencing hearing or trial, forcing victims’ families to confront it all again.

Cruz is represente­d by the Broward County public defender’s office, which

has taken deposition­s so far from about 300 witnesses. His lawyers declined to comment for this story, but in court papers they have insisted there is no intent to delay the case.

Cruz had a well-documented history of mental problems, including an obsession with violence and death, before the shooting rampage when he was 19.

His defense isn’t focused on his guilt or innocence; it’s more about sparing him from the death penalty, his lawyers have said in court.

One big sticking point is access to Cruz in jail. His lawyers say that mental health experts they need for the trial must interview him in person, which they will not do as long as the coronaviru­s remains a threat in the nation’s jails.

But officials have raised security concerns about transporti­ng Cruz from jail to meet with defense experts elsewhere.

In recent weeks, there has also been a lengthy battle over prosecutor­s’ desire to let the jury —whenever the case gets to that point — visit the now-closed school building to see it for themselves. Defense attorneys say that would be too prejudicia­l and that ample video and other evidence exists.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer initially hoped to begin the trial in January 2020. That obviously did not happen. Then everything was shut down when the coronaviru­s pandemic struck in mid-March.

No trial date has been set. The next hearing is a status conference, conducted remotely like other such proceeding­s over the past several months, on Feb. 16. Since the 2018 massacre: The sheriff at the time, Scott Israel, was removed by the governor because of the agency’s performanc­e that day.

The school security officer on duty the day of the shootings, former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson, faces 11 criminal charges, including child neglect and negligence, for not entering the school building to confront Cruz. He has pleaded not guilty and also awaits trial.

A commission set up to study the tragedy recommende­d that teachers be trained and armed in schools, and the state Legislatur­e in 2019 passed a law to that effect.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the shootings and will probably take years to resolve. The coronaviru­s outbreak has hindered those cases as well, though a judge recently ruled the school system had no duty to warn of the danger posed by Cruz, by then a former student.

In that case, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning said the Broward County school district cannot be held liable for failing to predict actions that were beyond its control, the South Florida SunSentine­l reported.

“The District had no control over Cruz,” the judge ruled. “They did not have custody over him. He was not a student in the system and had not been for over a year. In fact, he was refused access to the campus once he left school.”

The judge also said the plaintiffs are relying on too many “what if ” questions to build a solid legal claim for damages.

“There is no foundation for the argument that if Cruz had been sent to a different program, and if he had been treated as a higher threat years before the incident, and if he had been criminally charged years earlier so he’d have been convicted and could not buy or own a gun, and if he had never been permitted to attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas, then he would not have been on this campus and would never have committed the crime,” the ruling said.

It has been a staple of American breakfast tables for more than a century, but has long faced criticism that its name and likeness are rooted in racist imagery.

Now, Aunt Jemima has a new name: the Pearl Milling Co.

In an announceme­nt this week by PepsiCo, which owns Aunt Jemima’s parent company Quaker Oats, the pancake-mix and syrup line formally began rebranding itself and moved one step closer to permanentl­y abandoning its 131-year-old name.

The new name comes from the milling company in St. Joseph, Missouri, that pioneered the self-rising pancake mix that became known as Aunt Jemima, according to PepsiCo, which said the rebranded products would arrive in stores in June.

The change has been in the works since last June after the killing of George Floyd catalyzed widespread protests over racial injustice and a nationwide reckoning over symbols of the Old South and their meaning. Several large food companies came under fire for using racial stereotype­s, including Quaker Oats, which said it would drop the Aunt Jemima name, redesign its packaging and pledge $5 million to support the Black community.

The company unveiled a redesigned website for its line of Aunt Jemima products Tuesday, saying “it was the start of a new day.”

“Last June, PepsiCo and The Quaker Oats Company made a commitment to change the name and image of Aunt Jemima, recognizin­g that they do not reflect our core values,” the company said on the website.

Products with the Aunt Jemima name will continue

to be available until June, but without the picture of the Aunt Jemima character’s face, according to PepsiCo, which said in a news release that the company sought input on the new name.

“Throughout the effort that led to the new Pearl Milling Company name, Quaker worked with consumers, employees, external cultural and subject-matter experts, and diverse agency partners to gather broad perspectiv­es and ensure the new brand was developed with inclusivit­y in mind,” PepsiCo said.

Ja’Mal Green, a civil rights advocate and former Chicago mayoral candidate, said Tuesday on Twitter that the change had been long overdue.

“130 years ago two white men created ‘Aunt Jemima’ syrup,” Green said. “Took a Black slave archetype & made her the face of their syrup for profit. Today, that ends. Aunt Jemima is finally being replaced. Those white men made billions appropriat­ing blackness & hopefully rotting in hell.”

On the Aunt Jemima website, photos of the

pancake mix and syrup’s new packaging were unveiled. They feature a rendering of a mill with a water wheel and still use the same red, white and yellow color scheme.

Both the pancake-mix box and the syrup bottle included a label that says, “New Name Same Great Taste Aunt Jemima.”

In addition to the rebranding, the newly establishe­d Pearl Milling Co. also said it’s making a $1 million commitment to empower and uplift Black girls and women. The money is in addition to a $400 million, five-year investment to support Black business and communitie­s, and increase Black representa­tion at PepsiCo, the company said.

In September, Mars Food announced that it was changing the name of its Uncle Ben’s rice products to Ben’s Original and that it would also remove the image of a smiling older Black man from the box.

The parent company of Cream of Wheat also said in September that the Black chef would no longer appear on its packaging.

 ?? WILFREDO LEE/AP ?? Suzanne Devine Clark, an elementary school art teacher, places painted stones in February 2019 at a memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on the first anniversar­y of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
WILFREDO LEE/AP Suzanne Devine Clark, an elementary school art teacher, places painted stones in February 2019 at a memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on the first anniversar­y of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
 ?? PEPSICO ?? Quaker Oats’ Pearl Milling Co. brand pancake mix and syrup, formerly the Aunt Jemima brand. Aunt Jemima products will continue to be sold until June.
PEPSICO Quaker Oats’ Pearl Milling Co. brand pancake mix and syrup, formerly the Aunt Jemima brand. Aunt Jemima products will continue to be sold until June.

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