The Florida School Shooter’s Unloaded, Inoperable Firearm – a Warning to the State of Florida and a Signal for Gun Control

The jury trying to recommend a death sentence for the Florida school shooter will take a look at the gun he used in the massacre.

Because of security reasons, the judge was unable to send the firearm back to the jury. The Broward County Sheriff’s Department did not want to take the unloaded, inoperable firearm back to the jury room at that time.

Lead prosecutor Michael Satz objected, saying he had seen this done in many previous cases, even calling the situation “ridiculous” and “preposterous.”

The trial of the man who killed 17 people at a Florida high school has ended just over a year after he pled guilty to the murders and sparked a nationwide movement for gun control. It is the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in the US and the latest example of gun violence on US campuses.

The deadliest mass shooting at a US high school happened at the school when 14 students and three school staff members were killed. In the years since the shooting, survivors and victims’ families became very outspoken on gun control.

Timing the jury’s verdict on the heinous, atrocious and cruel death sentence of a young man who committed a gun-related crime

The jury received instructions in the morning, about six months after jury selection started. Opening statements for the sentencing trial began in July.

To recommend death, all 12 jurors must agree on several things: First, that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt there was at least one aggravating factor – a reason why Cruz should be put to death, like whether the killing was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel – and that the factor is sufficient to warrant a possible death sentence.

The first day of deliberations saw jurors asking for a readback of at least some testimony from two experts who testified during the trial, both of whom testified across multiple days.

His defense team argued Cruz is a “brain-damaged, mentally ill” individual who, among other conditions, suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, stemming from his mother’s substance and alcohol abuse during pregnancy, McNeill said during closing arguments.

Cruz’s defense attorneys offered evidence of a lifetime of troubles at home and in school, while prosecutors argued Cruz’s decision to commit the shooting was premeditated.

Despite his issues – and the educators and school counselors who were concerned about his behavior and poor academic performance – Cruz never got adequate or appropriate intervention, defense attorneys argued. This was in part due to his late adoptive mother who, defense attorney Melisa McNeill said, “never truly appreciated” what was wrong with him.

Four years after he carried out a massacre at his former high school in Florida, the profoundly disturbed student who sparked an anti-gun- violence movement still shouldn’t be condemned.

In rendering their decision, the jury unanimously agreed the state had proven the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt – and they were sufficient to warrant a possible death sentence.

It was difficult for observers to discern immediately what the jury had decided in the 17 counts of murder that were written on the verdict sheets.

Following the jury’s recommendation, prosecutors requested that those who were victims of Cruz be allowed to present testimony about the crime and what they see as the appropriate sentence. The judge agreed to the request, which will happen in weeks ahead.

The judge in the case, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, cannot overrule the jury’s decision. In the year of 2016 death sentences were abolished in Florida.

The 2018 February 14 shooting rampage by a 19-year-old expelled student killed at a El Paso, Texas, school

On February 14, 2018, Cruz carried out a massacre. He was 19 at the time, and had been expelled from the school. He walked into a school building, used a rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members and wound 17 others, before taking his own life.

“Over the trial’s six months, jurors heard students and teachers who survived the shooting describe the attack. Medical examiners testified about Cruz shooting in classrooms and hallways, while some of the victims were shot repeatedly, Allen reported.

Cruz’s rampage was the deadliest mass shooting in the US to be tried, according to The Associated Press. In other attacks in which 17 or more people were killed, the shooter was either killed by police or died by suicide. Still awaiting trial is the suspect in the 2019 shooting of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

“There was one with a hard ‘no,’ she couldn’t do it. Thomas said there was also another two that ended up voting the same way. He explained that the woman who was a hard no “didn’t believe because he was mentally ill he should get the death penalty.”

Victims’ loved ones were overwhelmed with rage and disbelief after hearing the verdict and many denounced the decision as inadequate punishment given the extraordinary losses they have suffered.

The 14 slain students were: 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 teacher Scott Beigel, 35; wrestling coach Chris Hixon, 49; and assistant football coach Aaron Feis, 37, were also killed – each while running toward danger or trying to help students to safety.

In an interview with CNN Thursday, Hixon said she felt like she had been punched in the chest when she found out the killer wouldn’t get the death penalty.

“What hurts the most is that there is a belief that any mitigating circumstances could outweigh what he did to our loved ones,” Hixon said, adding, “Because the way it comes out is that his life has more value than those that were murdered.”

He told reporters that this day is not a day of celebration, but a day of solemn acknowledgment and an opportunity to reflect on the healing that is necessary for this community.

Several families were categorical that the jury made a mistake and didn’t deliver peace. The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff said they were “disgusted” by the verdict.

Ilan Alhadeff said that he is disgusted with the system that allows 17 dead and 17 wounded to not be put to death. What is the death penalty for?

Anne Ramsey said she believed justice wasn’t done because she had spent months and months listening and hearing testimonies. “The wrong verdict was given out today.”

The families of the victims embrace in the courtroom before the verdict is read.

A Final Word for the Shooter’s Spouse, Tony Montalto, and a Voice of a Family who Shot and killed His Husband

The father of Gina Montalto continued his appeal for gun policy reform to stop the growing reality of gun violence in American schools.

“While this sentence fails to punish the perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law – it will not stop our mission to effect positive change at a federal, state and local level to prevent school shooting tragedies from shattering other American families,” Tony Montalto said.

Hixon told CNN that she has a final word for the person who shot and killed her husband, and that she doesn’t want the jury’s decision to distract from his memory.

“I hope he has the fear in him, every second of his life, just the way he gave that fear to every one of our loved ones, who he murdered,” she said. He should be afraid of everything for the rest of his life.

The jury recommended that not an official sentence be made. Since Thursday, jurors have come forward about what they described were intense deliberations, and one juror reported feeling threatened; an allegation the local sheriff’s office is now investigating.

The court will give them a chance to be heard. And we appreciate that, and we recognize that, and that should be followed,” Weekes said. The jurors in the case sat through a lot of hard evidence and thoughtful deliberations before they decided. We have to respect that.”

NIKOLAS CRUZ JAIL LIFE RECOMMENDATION WHATS NEXT FOR AN EFFECTIVE PERSON LOOK AT THE COFFICE CENTER

In addition to his state prison sentence, Cruz has been sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in jail for attacking a jail officer.

He is likely to be in county custody for a couple weeks after his sentence is handed down, before being put in the custody of Florida’s Department of Corrections and taken to reception centers across the state.

He will spend several weeks at the reception center “getting physical examinations, mental health examinations,” Johnson said. “They’ll look at his record, they’ll look at the level of crime that he’s convicted of, which is obviously the highest, and they’ll recommend a facility somewhere in the state.”

“The most serious offenders with the longest sentences and those least likely to adjust to institutional life are placed in more secure facilities,” the corrections department website noted. Based on those evaluations, the individual is then transferred to the facility deemed most appropriate.

He would be a real threat for him because there are people who think he should be locked up, and who might not get the sentence he got in court.

According to a corrections department handbook, there are several custody classifications of inmates, among them, close custody for inmates who “must be maintained within an armed perimeter or under direct, armed supervision when outside of a secure perimeter.”

Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of geography teacher Scott Beigel, who was killed in the high school, said in a news conference following the jury recommendation that Cruz will have to look over his shoulder every minute of the rest of his life.

Parents of Parkland victims, including Schachter, have pointed to parts of life Cruz will still get to experience while in prison their children were robbed of.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/16/us/nikolas-cruz-jury-life-recommendation-whats-next/index.html

The Florida High School Shooting Shooting Victims’ Attorney’s Office. The Second Round of Victim Impact Testimony will be Held in a Special Retention Facility

He likely has the right to see visitors and receive mail, according to Johnson. Johnson added that he could also have a device that will allow him to email and text others.

Inmates and their families can communicate through stationary kiosks and tablets available in general population housing units, according to the department of corrections website. There are services available in all of the major institutions in Florida.

Also while in jail, Cruz drew pictures of bullets, guns and people being shot. He wrote he “never wanted to be alive,” and he hopes he dies and never wakes up and “my life is painful, always has always will” be.

Cruz will receive a psychiatric examination when he arrives at the reception center, Johnson said, which will help determine his diagnosis and what medication he may require.

The gunman in the 2018 Parkland school massacre will be formally sentenced this week to life in prison – but not until the families of those he killed have one more opportunity to face him in court.

Scherer is expected to issue a formal sentence Wednesday after the victims’ loved ones, many of whom were disappointed and angered by the jury’s sentencing recommendation, have another chance to take the stand starting Tuesday to testify about the impact of his actions.

Many of the Parkland families already testified over several days this summer as prosecutors closed their case, describing the depth of the loss they had suffered. The family of a 14-year-old killed in the Florida high school massacre that left 14 others dead did not include everything they wanted to say, because they had to check with attorneys on both sides.

The second round of victim impact testimony will happen over two days, with those who survived the shooting also entitled to speak, a statement from the State Attorney’s Office said. There are no time limits or limitations on the number of people who will testify, but it is unclear how many will. Some people may testify via video conference.

“I have a lot more I’d like to say. Guttenberg told CNN, “We will now be able to tell him exactly how we feel about him.”

Prosecutors also presented Cruz’s online search history showing how he sought information about past mass shootings, as well as comments he left on YouTube, sharing his express desire to perpetrate a mass killing.

The Shooting of Gina Montalto, a 22-Year-old Shooting Victim, Shows No Kind of Sympathy

“Sometimes,” McNeill said in her own closing argument, “the people who deserve the least amount of compassion and grace and remorse are the ones who should get it.”

The woman was “not moving” from her stance, juror Melody Vanoy told CNN. “Whether we took 10 hours or five days” to deliberate, “she didn’t feel she was going to be moved either way.”

The father of Gina Montalto said outside the courtroom after the jury verdict was read that the shooter did not deserve compassion.

Does he show any kind of sympathy when he put the weapon against Gina’s chest and then shot her four times, or did he simply choose to shoot her? Was that compassionate?”

Some of the victims relatives didn’t feel that way. Before the end of the trial, Robert Schentrup, the brother of victim Carmen Schentrup, told CNN he was against the death penalty – in Cruz’s case and all others.

“Logically,” he said, “it doesn’t follow for me that we say, ‘Murdering someone is this horrible, heinous, awful, terrible thing, and in order to prove that point, we’re going to do it to someone else.’”