A US lawyer urged jurors on Monday to hand the gunman the death penalty to the gunman who killed 17 people in the 2018 Florida school bombing.
Nikolas Cruz, 23, admitted in October the premeditated murder of 14 students and 3 staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 30 miles from Fort Lauderdale.
Attorney Michael Satz told a Broward County jury on the first day of his criminal trial that Cruz committed “the systematic, planned, targeted murder – mass murder – of 14 students, an athletic director, a teacher and a technician.
Cruz, a 19-year-old former student expelled from school at the time of the massacre, will face life in prison without parole if any of the 12 jurors oppose the death penalty. The decision may take several months.
About three dozen relatives of the victims were present in the courtroom. Some nodded or cried as Satz described the massacre, naming each of the 17 killed and injured in the attack by name.
Wearing a black and gray blouse and a black mask, Cruz listened to most of Satz’s speech, slumped in his chair and staring at the floor. She apparently took some notes and forwarded them to her lawyer, she.
Cruz said he was “very sorry” while pleading guilty and asked for a chance to help others. Satz said the aggravating factors in the case, including intent, outweighed arguments for tolerance, including Cruz’s history of psychiatric health problems.
source: Noticias
[author_name]
