FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. --
The penalty trial of Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz can be delayed till April after prosecutors informed the decide Wednesday that they wanted extra time to interview the psychological well being consultants who're anticipated to testify on his behalf.
Circuit Choose Elizabeth Scherer reluctantly moved the beginning of jury choice from Feb. 21 till the primary week of April after attorneys for each side conferred behind closed doorways. That can be nearly 4 years and two months after the Feb. 14, 2018, taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland that left 14 college students and three employees members lifeless and 17 wounded.
The trial was initially anticipated to start in 2020 however has been delayed quite a few occasions due to the coronavirus pandemic and the greater than 1,000 potential witnesses who have to be interviewed. Below Florida legislation, prosecutors and protection attorneys are allowed to interview the opposite facet's witnesses earlier than trial so that they know what they're anticipated to say and may put together their cross-examination.
Prosecutors informed Scherer that the protection has now offered 16 psychological well being consultants and expects so as to add as much as 5 extra who may testify on Cruz's behalf. Many had been unable to interview Cruz till not too long ago as a result of the Broward County jail had been closed to most outsiders because the pandemic started in March 2020. The consultants have since been capable of communicate with Cruz and are actually being interviewed by prosecutors. As well as, a psychological well being knowledgeable employed by the prosecution will interview Cruz in two weeks, after which the protection might want to interview that knowledgeable.
“I do not suppose I've a alternative however to delay,” a pissed off Scherer stated. She and the attorneys agreed that the delays, whereas obligatory, are irritating to the victims' households who're organizing their lives across the trial.
Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible in October to 17 counts of first-degree homicide and 17 counts of tried homicide, however a jury should nonetheless resolve whether or not he can be executed or obtain a life sentence with out parole. The trial is anticipated to final at the least two months.
In different points mentioned at Wednesday's listening to, Scherer dominated that the prosecution doesn't should pare down its attainable witness listing of 1,100 folks, the vast majority of whom is not going to testify.
Cruz attorneys argued that having such a big listing is the equal of getting no listing in any respect as a result of it makes it inconceivable to arrange. However Scherer agreed with lead prosecutor Mike Satz, who stated he cannot eradicate any witnesses as a result of somebody's testimony is likely to be unexpectedly wanted after which the protection will object that the particular person is not on the listing.
Scherer stated she is going to resolve afterward a movement by Cruz's attorneys to dam the names of the jurors from being launched to the general public and information media till “an inexpensive time” after the trial. They need the jurors to be referred to by numbers, so anybody watching the choice on TV is not going to study their identities. Information organizations together with The Related Press have already got agreed to not videotape or photograph the jurors.
Cruz legal professional Tamara Curtis stated the jurors, if their names are recognized, might obtain threats and different stress to condemn Cruz to dying, pointing to the threats they, as legal professionals, have obtained for representing him. In addition they need the decide to bar information shops from revealing jurors' employers, household names and “all different demographic info” in the course of the trial.
Curtis cited a number of latest high-profile trials wherein the jurors' names weren't instantly disclosed, together with the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman homicide trials in Florida and the trial in Georgia that ended with the homicide convictions of three males in reference to the dying of Ahmaud Arbery.
As a rule, most information shops don't publish jurors' names or different info that would particularly establish them throughout a trial, even when they aren't banned from doing so.
Prosecutor Nicole Chiappone and legal professional Dana McElroy, representing the AP and a number of other different information shops, argued that Scherer ought to reject the request. They argued that below Florida legislation, juror info is presumed to be public and may solely be sealed primarily based on proof, not hypothesis.
On this Dec. 10, 2019, file photograph, Parkland college taking pictures defendant Nikolas Cruz seems at a listening to in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Solar Sentinel through AP, Pool, File)
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