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Jury selection starts today for panel that’ll help decide if Parkland school shooter gets the death penalty
Following Cruz’s responsible pleas, the 12-member jury now being impaneled for the penalty section might be requested to resolve whether or not to advocate his execution. Six to eight alternates are also as a consequence of be picked, the choose mentioned final week throughout a listening to.
“There have been 17 individuals killed, so there’s a story of the dying of 17 individuals,” Assistant State Lawyer Jeff Marcus instructed the court docket in explaining why the penalty section may final into the autumn. “After which there are 17 extra which might be thought of aggravating elements within the case.”
Jurors must agree unanimously that at the very least one aggravating issue — together with the concurrent capital felony expenses to which Cruz pleaded responsible, or whether or not he knowingly created the danger of different deaths — exists among the many 34 expenses to then start to debate whether or not he ought to face the dying penalty.
If that occurs, they have to be unanimous in recommending a dying sentence, in any other case his sentence would essentially be life in jail. In the event that they do advocate capital punishment, the ultimate resolution nonetheless rests with the choose.
14 college students and three college members had been slain
When he arrived, Cruz walked into the highschool’s three-story 1200 constructing, stepped into the east stairwell and began loading the rifle. As he did so, a scholar walked into the stairwell, Satz mentioned.
“You higher get out of right here,” Cruz instructed the coed, per the prosecutor. “One thing unhealthy is about to occur.”
At about 2:21 p.m., Cruz opened hearth within the hallway, Satz mentioned, capturing at college students and academics in hallways and school rooms as he made his approach by the constructing and up by every flooring. At one level, mud shaken from ceiling tiles by the gunfire set off the constructing’s hearth alarm, sending college students and academics out of the lecture rooms and into the hallways.
Of these killed, 14 had been college students: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; and Peter Wang, 14.
Geography instructor Scott Beigel, 35; wrestling coach Chris Hixon, 49; and assistant soccer coach Aaron Feis, 37, had been additionally killed — every whereas working towards hazard or making an attempt to assist college students to security.
After the capturing, Cruz put down his weapon, the remaining magazines and his tactical vest and fled, mixing in at 2:27 p.m. with different college students, Satz mentioned. He was arrested that afternoon, about 3 miles from the college.
On the October plea listening to, Cruz responded “responsible” to every of the 34 expenses he confronted earlier than addressing the victims and their households in a brief assertion to the court docket.
“I’m very sorry for what I did,” he mentioned, partially, “and I’ve to reside with it day-after-day.”
Cruz’s apology, nonetheless, did little to consolation the mum or dad of 1 slain scholar, who known as it “ridiculous.”
“I feel he deserves as a lot of an opportunity as he gave my daughter and everybody else on February 14 of 2018,” mentioned Gina Montalto’s father, Tony Montalto, when requested about Cruz going through the dying penalty.
Cruz has already been sentenced to 25 years in jail after he pleaded responsible to attacking a jail guard in November 2018.
Hundreds of thousands awarded to victims’ households in civil instances
However faculty shootings have continued, with some 130 recorded at US campuses with Okay-12 college students since Parkland, based on CNN’s tally.
“Whereas we acknowledge that no amount of cash could make these households complete, it’s the faculty board’s hope that this settlement will present our heartfelt dedication to the MSD households, college students, employees and school and the complete Broward County group,” the district’s interim basic counsel mentioned.
CNN’s Denise Royal contributed to this report.