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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nicolas Cruz Will be sentenced to life in prison this week – but not in front of family 17 people He was murdered for a chance to tell him what they thought.
A two-day hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday, when Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally sentence Cruz over the February 14, 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.Because the jury in his sentencing trial unable to agree The 24-year-old deserved the death penalty and Scherer could only sentence the former Stoneman Douglas student to life without parole – a result of criticism from most families.
Every family of the 14 students and three staff members Cruz killed was able to speak, as were the 17 people he injured in the seven-minute attack.family gave highly emotional Statements during the trial, but they were limited in what they could tell jurors: They could only describe their loved ones and the toll the murder took on their lives. The wounded can only say what happened to them.
They were barred from talking directly to Cruz or talking about anything about him — violations that could invalidate the trial. Jurors were told they could not consider family statements as an aggravating factor when weighing whether Cruz should die.
Now, the grieving and scarred can speak directly to Cruz if they so choose.
“We’re looking forward to speaking without the guardrails imposed on us,” said Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was murdered.
Attorneys for Broward County public defender Gordon Weeks representing Cruz, said he had no problem with the families expressing their anger directly at Cruz.
“That’s right,” Weeks said. The sentencing hearing “was not only an accountability process, but there was something cathartic about it.”
“Hopefully after expressing (their anger) not only the community will hear the pain they’re enduring, but the court will hear it and we’ll move on.”
Weeks said Cruz is not expected to speak.After he apologized in court last year plead guilty Murder and attempted murder – but families told reporters they believed the apology was selfish and intended to gain sympathy.
The request sets the stage for a three-month sentencing trial that ends on October 13. Jury votes 9-3 for death penalty — Those who voted for life believed Cruz was mentally ill and should have been spared, jurors said. Under Florida law, death sentences require unanimous consent.
Prosecutors argue Cruz orchestrated the shooting for seven months before he slipped into jail. Three-story teaching building, Shoot 140 rounds down the hallway into the classroom with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He shot and killed some of the injured victims after they fell. Cruz said he chose Valentine’s Day so will never celebrate it again at Stoneman Douglas.
Cruz’s lawyers never questioned the horror he caused, instead focusing on their belief in his biological mother heavy drinking during pregnancy Damaged his brain and condemned him to a life of erratic and sometimes violent behavior that culminated in the Holocaust — the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
After Cruz was sentenced, his attorneys said he would be transferred from the Broward County Jail to the state correctional system processing center near Miami, and then to a high-security prison. The Florida Department of Corrections declined to comment.
Former Florida prison warden Ron McAndrew believes that because of Cruz’s notoriety, officials at the prison would place him in “protective management” separate from other inmates to prevent him from harm.
McAndrew said Cruz’s cell will be 9 feet by 12 feet (3 meters by 4 meters) and come with a bed, metal sink and metal toilet. For one hour a day, he will be allowed alone into an outdoor cage, usually 20 feet by 20 feet (6 meters by 6 meters), where he can work out and bounce basketballs. Florida prisons don’t have air conditioning. McAndrew noted that because Cruz is serving a life sentence, he will be last in the education and rehabilitation program.
McAndrew said Cruz will be under protective management until prison officials deem it safe to place him in the general population, a process that could take years. It’s also possible that Florida could send Cruz to another state in exchange for one of the notorious inmates so both could have more anonymity, the former warden said.
But ultimately, Cruz will be placed in the general population, McAndrew said. He will be required to bed, work and socialize with other prisoners.At 5ft 7in (1.4m) and 130lbs (59kg) Cruz may have a hard time defending himself – although he does Attack and briefly immobilize the Broward prison guardA stronger prisoner could potentially be his protector — “but that would come at a dire price,” McAndrew said.
Linda Beigel Schulman, whose son Scott Beigel was murdered by Cruz, said she wanted Cruz “to have fear every second of his life, Just as he brought fear to every loved one he murdered, or the students and people he harmed.”
Craig Trocino, a law professor at the University of Miami, said one benefit of Cruz’s life sentence is that he would disappear from the public eye; the death sentence would bring a decade of appeals and the possibility of a retrial, and was eventually executed. Each step will be covered extensively.
“No one will hear from him again until he dies,” Trosino said.
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