Satz: It’s not time to discuss plea deal

Broward State Attorney Mike Satz said Saturday that now is not the time to discuss whether his office would seek the death penalty or make a plea deal for Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of shooting and killing 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.

But he left little doubt that the death penalty would be appropriate.

“This certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for,” Satz said in a statement Saturday. “This was a highly calculated and premeditated murder of 17 people and the attempted murder of everyone in that school. Our office will announce our formal position at the appropriate time.”

Satz’s statement comes after Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said Friday that Cruz would plead guilty in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table.

Satz did not elaborate as to when the appropriate time might be, but said that “now is the time to let the families grieve and bury their children and loved ones.”

The grieving of families and survivors is also on the minds of staff in the Public Defender’s office. Gordon Weekes, one of Finkelstein’s top assistant public defenders, said that if Satz pursues the death penalty, it will force a trial.

“The State Attorney’s Office will have decided to put all these victims through this over and over again. We don’t want these folks, who have already lost so much and are going through so much pain, to have to go through more pain,” Weekes said. “We are willing and able to save everyone from having to go through a trial. Life in prison is a death sentence for him. He’s going to die in prison.”

Staff writers Paula McMahon and Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.