The defense attorney for Nicholas Cruzwho shot 17 people to death at a Florida high school in 2018, urged his trial jury on Monday not to sentence him to death, saying his brain was “broken” for being the son of an alcoholic birth mother.
(Also read: Parkland: trial begins to determine sentence against author of the shooting)
Cruz pleaded guilty to the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 70 km north of Miami, but the jury has to decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison.
The defendant’s attorney, Melisa McNeill, told jurors that the 23-year-old was born to a “homeless and mentally challenged” mother who used alcohol and drugs during her pregnancy.
“Because Nikolas was bombarded by all those things, he was poisoned in the womb. Because of that, his brain was irretrievably broken, through no fault of his own,” he said.
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His brain was irretrievably broken, through no fault of his own.
McNeill added that for much of his client’s life his developmental and behavioral issues were not addressed. Not even after his high school teachers claimed that Cruz was a threat to himself and others.
On February 14, 2018, a year after his expulsion from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Cruz went there with a semi-automatic rifle with which he killed 17 people, 14 of them students.
His lawyer argued that the circumstances of her client’s birth and upbringing should mitigate the punishment, and that life imprisonment was more appropriate than execution.
“Nikolas Cruz’s decision to take an Uber to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and kill as many people as possible is not where the Nikolas Cruz story begins,” he said.
McNeill claimed Cruz was born with fetal alcohol stress disorder and was diagnosed at age three with antisocial personality disorder.
(Also: Uvalde: report reveals “serious errors” by the authorities in the shooting)
The defendant’s biological mother gave him up for adoption. In turn, his adoptive mother also became an alcoholic, and the boy grew up in a broken home, the lawyer added.
The members of the jury, who visited the high school and to whom the prosecutors showed the shocking videos of the shooting in July, will have to agree because the eventual decision to sentence him to death must be approved unanimously.
AFP
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