An AR-15 Recommendation to the Parkland, Florida, School Shooter, Michael J. Cruz, on the Issue of Death and Life in Prison
During their second day of deliberations Thursday, the 12-person jury tasked with recommending a death sentence or life in prison for the Parkland, Florida, school shooter will examine the AR-15 he used in the 2018 massacre.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said she planned to send the firearm back to the jury, but was unable to because of “security reasons.” The unloaded, inoperable gun was not returned to the jury room by the Sheriff’s Department.
Lead prosecutor Michael Satz objected, saying he had seen this done in many previous cases, even calling the situation “ridiculous” and “preposterous.”
After a monthslong trial, a jury recommended life in prison for the man who killed 17 people at a high school in Florida and spared his life after defense attorneys argued that he was a disturbed person.
The deadliest mass shooting at a US high school happened when a group of students opened fire on other students and staff. After the shooting, survivors and victims’ families became very outspoken on gun control.
About six months after jury selection began, the jury received instructions from the judge. The sentencing trial began in July.
If the jurors do not unanimously recommend Cruz get a death sentence, he will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the jury does recommend death, the final decision rests with Scherer, who could choose to follow the recommendation or sentence Cruz to life.
The Florida gun-assisted death penalty, and the case of Alyssa Alhadeff, the victim of the Florida high school shooting
The first day of deliberations saw jurors looking for a readback of two experts who testified in the trial, both of whom testified across multiple days.
His defense team argued Cruz was a brain-damaged, mentally ill individual who had a Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder due to the substance and alcohol abuse his mother had while pregnant.
Cruz’s defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that he was not criminally responsible for the shooting because of his background and struggles at home and in school.
And Cruz appeared to control his behavior in the courtroom, McNeill said, because “he’s medicated, and he’s under psychiatric care. He’s being treated by the jail psychologist.”
The anti-gun-violence movement led by students that sprung up after the mass shooting at a high school in Florida four years ago, should not be condemned by the man who carried out the massacre.
“I am disgusted with our legal system. I am disgusted with those jurors,” said Ilan Alhadeff, the father of victim Alyssa Alhadeff. “That you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty. What do we have the death penalty for? What is the purpose of it? You set a precedent. Nothing happens to you if you set a precedent for mass killing. You’ll get life in jail. I’m sorry – that is not OK. As a country we need to stand up and say that’s not OK!”
It could be difficult for an observer to decipher what the jury had decided in the early part of the trial.
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 will make a decision by the end of the month.
The state required a simple majority for a death sentence but after a series of court decisions, Florida began requiring unanimous verdicts. (In federal courts and in every state in which jurors determine the sentence, with the sole exception of Alabama, unanimous verdicts are required for capital punishment.)
The day of love: John Cruz killed in the school building and killed injuring a teacher and 14 students in El Paso, Texas
Cruz carried out a shooting on the day of love. He was 19 at the time, and had been expelled from the school. Fourteen students and three staff members were killed and 17 others were wounded when he entered a school building and started shooting with an assault rifle.
The trial lasted six months, during which students and teachers who were wounded describe the attack. They heard graphic testimony from medical examiners and viewed surveillance videos showing Cruz firing into classrooms and hallways, shooting some victims repeatedly,” Allen reported.
Cruz’s rampage is the deadliest mass shooting to go to trial in the U.S., 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. Another two people ended up voting in the same way, said Thomas. 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.
A geography teacher, a wrestling coach, and a football coach were all killed while trying to save students.
According to CNN Thursday, the widow of a man who died from an overdose said she felt like she had been punched in the chest when she found out the killer wouldn’t be put to death.
“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 said that the day wasn’t a day of celebration, but a chance to reflect on the healing needed for the community.
But several families were insistent that the jury’s decision does not deliver them peace. The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff said they were “disgusted” by the verdict.
Ilan Alhadeff said he was appalled that the system allowed 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded in order to not get the death penalty. What are the consequences of the death penalty?
“After spending months and months listening, and hearing testimonies, and looking at the murderer – his composure – I believe justice was not done,” Anne Ramsay said. “The wrong verdict was given out today.”
Linda Beigel Schulman, Michael Schulman, Patricia Padauy Oliver and Fred Guttenberg, families of the victims, embrace in the courtroom before the verdict is read.
A Motion to Improve Education for School Shootings: Gina Montalto’s Attorney General Erice Hixon on the Investigation of a Family Lawsuit
The father of a 14-year-old Gina Montalto asked for gun policy reform in order to prevent more schools from being affected by gun violence.
Tony Montalto said that despite the fact that the sentences fails to punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law, it will not stop them from trying to prevent school shooting tragedies from shattering other American families.
Hixon told CNN that she doesn’t want the jury’s decision to distract from her husband’s memory, and she has some final words for the man who killed her husband.
She hopes he has the fear in him every second of his life and that he wouldn’t do anything to our loved ones. He needs to be afraid every second of his life, and that’s where the fear comes from.
The jury’s recommendation Thursday is just that: a recommendation and not an official sentence. The local sheriff’s office is investigating an allegation of threats made by a juror after they came forward about deliberations that were intense.
“The court is going to respect that right and give them an opportunity to be heard. Weekes said that they appreciate that, and that should be followed. In addition, we have to recognize that the jurors in the case listened to and assessed a lot of very difficult and traumatic evidence before rendering a verdict. We have to be respectful of that.
Prisons in the Parkland Era: Determination of a Penalties Penalty and Implications for a Correctional Facility in Florida
Cruz was sentenced to 25 years in state prison after he was convicted for attacking a jail officer.
He will likely remain in county custody for a couple weeks after his sentence is handed down before he is then placed in the custody of Florida’s Department of Corrections and transported to one of several reception centers in the state.
He will spend several weeks at the reception center “getting physical examinations, mental health examinations,” Johnson said. They will look at his records, they will look at the level of crime that he was convicted of, and they will recommend a facility somewhere in the state.
The facility is determined by several factors, including the seriousness of the prisoner’s offenses, the length of sentence, time remaining to serve and previous criminal record.
“But he wouldn’t be isolated, which of course, is a real threat for him because there may be people who want to do ‘prison justice,’ who didn’t feel that the sentence he got in court was enough,” Johnson added.
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.”
And in a news conference following the jury’s recommendation, Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of geography teacher Scott Beigel, who was killed in the high school, said Cruz will “have to look over his shoulder (in prison) 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.
Parkland Victims’ Impact Testimony at the Correctional Facility where a Shooter and His Ex-Family Became
He will likely have the right to receive mail and see visitors, according to Johnson. He could also have a tablet through which he will be able to email and text others, Johnson added.
The department of corrections website pointed out inmates and their families are allowed to communicate through “interactive, stationary kiosks available in general population housing units, as well as tablets.” Those services are available in all the major correctional institutions in Florida, according to the site.
The pictures Cruz drew were depicting 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.
After listening to an emotional hearing where family members of the victims confronted him in court, the shooter was sentenced to life in prison.
The family of the victims will have another chance to testify against him starting Tuesday as the jury gets ready to recommend a sentence.
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 father of a 14-year-old who was killed at the school said the families’ statements weren’t all they wanted them to be.
The second round of victim impact testimony will happen over two days, with those who survived the shooting also entitled to speak, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office confirmed to CNN in a statement. It’s unclear how many of them or victims’ loved ones will take the stand, but no time limits are being imposed, and some people may testify via video conference.
I have a lot of things I would like to say. Guttenberg told CNN that she wanted to say more to the killer, and that they will get to tell him how they feel about him.
Cruz had a search history on the internet showing how he sought information about past mass killings, as well as comments on his personal website detailing his desire to kill.
“Not moving” a victim: How she killed a woman, and killed her, in front of a gunman, in a florida courtroom
“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.”
Tony Montalto, father of slain 14-year-old Gina Montalto, spoke after the jury’s findings were read.
Did he show compassion when he put the weapon against Gina’s chest, and then pulled the gun and killed her, or the other three times she was shot by him? Was that compassionate?”
Not all the victims relatives felt that way. Robert Schentrup, brother of victim Carmen Schentrup, told CNN that he was against the death penalty in Cruz’s case.
It doesn’t make sense to say that killing someone is this horrible, heinous, terrible thing, and if we can prove that point we will do it to someone else.
Parkland Shooter Life Sensence: Why Isn’t “Irresponsible”? “The Importance of Mental Health Treatment,” says J. A. Scherer
I can’t help but think how I would respond if I were in your shoes, because you all have been so patient and patient throughout this process. The way that you have behaved so gracefully, and showed extraordinary restraint throughout this process, is something that I’ve never seen,” Scherer said.
Many families chose to express their grief and fury at Cruz himself during the hearing, because they were given an opportunity to speak directly to him.
A Fort Lauderdale jury was tasked with giving a sentence recommendation at his trial which began earlier this year. They had only two options: life in prison or the death penalty.
“The idea that you, a killer, can live each day, eat your food, and sleep peacefully, is completely unjust,” said a teacher who was wounded in the shooting. “I don’t believe in comforting you because your life in prison will be filled with horror and fear.”
Max Schachter’s 14-year old son Alex was killed at the school. He accused McNeill of lying that Cruz did not get adequate mental health treatment.
“If you made a statement that’s an obvious lie, then it’s irresponsible for you to do so,” he said. “You’re making the mental health crisis in America worse by making a big deal of the fact that the murderer of the girl at school was black.”
The statements grew so heated that the judge was asked to intervene. “I did my job and every member of his team did their job, Judge. And we should not be personally attacked for that,” she said.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/02/1133562604/parkland-shooter-life-sentence
A Supermajority Vote for a Penalty for the Mass Shooting: The Case of Parkland, Fla.
You can’t get any other punishment for killing 17 innocent people and there is no other punishment that matches the gravity of the crime. And to have one juror holdout on that was a travesty,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis at a recent gubernatorial debate. I’m going to ask the Florida legislature to change that statute.
The families of the victims of the mass shooting in Parkland joined the call for the state legislature to allow a supermajority vote for a death sentence.