Prosecutors Make The Case To Have Parkland Shooter Executed

Jurors prepare to deliberate on sentencing for Parkland shooter – Reuters

The prosecutor and defense attorney for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz disagreed Tuesday on whether his 2018 attack was worthy of a death sentence.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others. Cruz’s massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. A jury will decide his sentence, and a unanimous vote is required for death.

Mike Satz, the lead prosecutor, said Cruz was driven by antisocial personality disorder and should be executed for the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Melisa McNeill, the defense attorney, said Cruz’s killings were “unrelentlessly heinous, atrocious and cruel.”

Cruz sat impassively during the presentations, occasionally exchanging notes with his attorneys. The victims’ parents, wives and family members packed the courtroom, many of them weeping during Satz’s presentation.

During trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing Cruz spent months searching online for information about mass shootings and left behind social media comments sharing his express desire to “kill people”.

The sentencing phase of Cruz’s trial is nearing its end, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty and defense attorneys arguing for life in prison without parole.

The judge said that sentencing Nikolas Cruz to death would serve no purpose other than vengeance. She suggested that the right thing to do would be to give him a life sentence.

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