Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Judge sets Parkland shooter trial for January.
Cruz faces death penalty if convicted on 17 murder charges
Jury selection in the murder case against the man who gunned down 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year has been set for Jan. 27, a Broward judge ordered Thursday.
Nikolas Cruz, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted on any one of 17 first-degree murder charges. He also is charged with 17 counts of attempted murder stemming from his Feb. 14, 2018, rampage at the Parkland high school he once attended.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer began telling prosecutors and defense lawyers earlier this year to be ready for a January trial date, and she has repeated that goal at almost every hearing since. Prosecutors have announced in court that they are ready to start the trial at any time, but defense lawyers have balked, telling Scherer that they need time to depose hundreds of witnesses on the prosecution’s list.
Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes repeated that stand Thursday. “The timeline is not realistic, given how much work needs to be done to prepare,” he said. “We’ve tried to make it clear at every hearing that this is an enormous case, and it seems to us that setting a January trial date is a political move that serves no judicial purpose.”
Weekes said the defense likely will file for a continuance as early as Cruz’s next scheduled court
appearance next week.
Within days of the mass shooting, the Broward Public Defender’s Office all but conceded his guilt — when it was time for him to enter a formal plea, Cruz “stood mute” instead of pleading not guilty, a tacit indication that the case will not hinge on his lawyers trying to convince anyone he did not commit the crime.
Scherer entered the not guilty plea on Cruz’s behalf, a legal formality allowing the case to proceed.
But Public Defender Howard Finkelstein urged his counterpart, State Attorney Mike Satz, to drop the death penalty and allow Cruz to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. Doing that, he contended, would bring closure to the community, survivors and the families of the victims.
Satz rejected the offer, saying the death penalty is legally appropriate in light of the preparation and premeditated intent to inflict harm.
Satz has said the decision of how to punish Cruz should be made by a jury, not the defendant.
In addition to setting a new trial date, Scherer announced that the trial would be moved from her courtroom, which has a maximum capacity of 75, to a larger one on the same floor. With a capacity of 120, the larger
room would accommodate the expected crowd of family members and media likely to attend.
Jury selection is only a partial indication of when testimony would start — opening statements can’t get underway until the selection process is complete, and in a case with this much pretrial publicity, that process could take weeks, or longer.
“I would estimate three months, maybe more,” said defense lawyer Mitch Polay, who in 2017 represented one of three men accused of the 2006 murder of a Broward Sheriff ’s Deputy. In that case, selection took three-and-a-half months. “You’re going to be dealing with many people who won’t be able to be impartial given the pervasive media coverage, the fact that this deals with children, that it’s an issue every parent is concerned with.”
Parents upset that their school-age children have to go through active shooter drills once a month may be reluctant to serve on the Cruz jury, he said.
Death penalty cases are conducted in two phases in Florida. In the first phase, the jury decides whether the defendant is guilty of a capital offense. In the second phase, the jury decides whether to impose the death penalty.
The recommendation to execute must be unanimous — a single “no” vote spares the defendant’s life. The judge would then be bound by law to impose a life sentence.