Jury is picked to decide whether Parkland shooter will be executed

The jury that will decide whether Nikolas Cruz should get the death penalty for killing 17 people in the 2018 shooting rampage at a Parkland high school was selected Wednesday after a painstaking, stop-and-start process that took nearly three months.

The defense used all 10 of its peremptory challenges, eliminating candidates for any reason other than race or gender, while the prosecution used four.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer rejected the defense’s attempt to eliminate a Black man who said during jury selection he did not believe in the existence of “white privilege” — the argument that white people get certain societal advantages because of their race. Scherer agreed with the prosecution’s argument that the defense’s reasoning showed racial bias.

The seven men and five women who were chosen will return to court July 18 for opening statements along with 10 alternates. Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to murdering 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, meaning the expected four-month trial will only decide if he receives a penalty of death or life in prison without parole. If one juror opposes death, the former Stoneman Douglas student will receive a life sentence.

The panel will have a task never faced by a U.S. jury — no American mass shooter who killed at least 17 people has ever made it to trial. Nine others died during or immediately after their shooting attacks, killed either by police or themselves. The suspect in the 2019 slaying of 23 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.