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Attorneys for Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz and prosecutors are arguing over whether or not his jury ought to tour the blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom constructing the place he murdered 17 individuals 4 years in the past
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Attorneys for Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz and his prosecutors argued vociferously Wednesday over whether or not the jurors who will resolve whether or not he’s sentenced to loss of life needs to be allowed to tour the blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom constructing the place he murdered 17 individuals 4 years in the past.
Prosecutors instructed Circuit Decide Elizabeth Scherer that the jurors have to see the trail Cruz, 23, took by the three-story constructing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, to grasp the carnage he unleashed as he walked methodically floor-to-floor, firing his semi-automatic rifle as he went. Shortly after the taking pictures, the constructing was fenced off and sealed — the dried blood, Valentine’s Day presents and bullet holes nonetheless in place.
Cruz’s attorneys argued that the jurors will already see intensive and grotesque safety video of the taking pictures, crime scene video and photographs taken instantly after the taking pictures and listen to testimony concerning the constructing. They mentioned the prosecution’s solely want is to inflame the jurors’ passions and get them to vote with their feelings, not their mind.
Cruz pleaded responsible in October to murdering 14 college students and three employees members, and to the cost of tried homicide for 17 individuals who had been wounded. Jury choice is scheduled to start Monday for a monthslong penalty trial that can decide whether or not the previous Stoneman Douglas pupil receives a loss of life sentence or life with out parole. Scherer beforehand dominated that jurors might tour the constructing, however that was earlier than Cruz’s responsible plea. The protection mentioned the plea eradicated the necessity to tour the constructing as a result of prosecutors now not needed to show his guilt.
The trial will resolve whether or not the irritating components of the killings — the a number of deaths, the planning, the cruelty — outweigh mitigating components resembling Cruz’s lifelong psychological and emotional issues and the loss of life of his dad and mom.
Juries do not usually tour crime scenes, however both aspect can request it if it believes a go to would assist the members higher perceive the case. It’s as much as the decide to resolve in the event that they go to.
Melisa McNeill, Cruz’s lead public defender, instructed Scherer that the constructing is now not an correct illustration of what occurred as a result of the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace eliminated private objects with out totally logging and photographing them. She gave the court docket a video her workplace produced that may present what Cruz noticed as he walked the halls, however removes all of the blood, Valentine’s presents and different crime scene materials. She mentioned exhibiting the jurors that may be a greater various.
“If the aim of operating the jury to the crime scene is in order that they’ll view the realm Mr. Cruz walked, the trail that he took, that may be achieved with a sanitized crime scene, if that’s actually their (the prosecution’s) intention,” McNeill mentioned. The jurors “needn’t see all the horrible issues.”
However assistant prosecutor Carolyn McCann instructed Scherer that no proof can substitute seeing “the carnage” left behind within the college constructing. Cruz selected to shoot individuals within the constructing, she mentioned. He selected to hold out his assault on Valentine’s Day. If a tour of the constructing evokes robust feelings, it was Cruz’s personal doing, she argued.
“There is no such thing as a one video, {photograph}, poster, movie, something, that captures what the … constructing is,” McCann mentioned. “The jury has to know the footsteps, the space, the angle, the visible acuity the defendant needed to have.”
Scherer mentioned she would rule quickly.
The constructing, which rises above the Stoneman Douglas campus, has been a grim, each day reminder of the taking pictures for college students, employees and oldsters. The Broward County college district plans to demolish it after the trial.
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