The trial of Nikolas Cruz, a young man who killed 17 people in 2018 in one of the worst school massacres in the United States, He began this Monday in Florida to set his sentence: death sentence or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The 23-year-old defendant entered a Fort Lauderdale courtroom, north of Miami, shortly before 9:30 a.m. local time and sat down between two of his attorneys. Much of his face was hidden under a black mask.
(Also read: Uvalde: report reveals “serious errors” by the authorities in the shooting)
The process, which begins with the initial statements of the two parties, could last several months given the large number of testimonies that are expected.
On February 14, 2018, Cruz caused panic in Parkland, a small town north of Miami, when he entered Marjory Stoneman High School, where he had been expelled a year earlier, with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
In a few minutes, he killed 14 students and three adults, and caused 17 injuries, acts for which he pleaded guilty in October.
The shooting shocked the entire country and especially South Florida, where it took nearly three months to select 12 jurors — seven men and five women — deemed impartial enough to decide Cruz’s fate.
Sentence
The trial will determine whether the defendant deserves to be sentenced to death, as prosecutors are asking.
Under Florida law, for that to happen, the jury must reach a unanimous decision. If even one of its members rejects capital punishment, the youth’s sentence will be life imprisonment without parole.
The process is unusual for the United States, where it is rare for perpetrators of such a massacre to survive their attack.
And it will certainly draw attention in a country shaken by a series of bloody shootings, including that of an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed in May.
(You can read: USA: what is known about the shooting in Indiana that left three dead)
hearings
The hearings are expected to be very emotional, with testimonies from relatives and survivors, as well as the dissemination of videos recorded by witnesses to the tragedy.
“I’m so sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day,” she said sobbing in October after pleading guilty.
The accusation, for its part, will surely focus on the premeditated nature of the murders, based on a video that Cruz recorded before perpetrating them.
“I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018,” he said on the recording. “I am nobody, my life is nothing and has no meaning,” she added.
Despite his psychiatric history and warnings from several close associates about his danger, Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic rifle.
after the tragedy, His victims filed a complaint against the federal police (FBI), which they accused of ignoring this information. The Justice Department agreed in March to pay them $127.5 million to settle the lawsuit.
(Also: US: to introduce bill to ban assault weapons)
When it happened, the Parkland massacre was the worst at a US school since the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 26 people were killed.
The news provoked an unprecedented mobilization led by several young survivors and parents of victims. On March 24, 2018, the “March for Our Lives” brought together 1.5 million people across the country, the largest demonstration ever held in the United States for greater gun control.
Despite the hopes of the protesters, no legislative reform was approved in Congress, and arms sales have continued to increase in recent years in the country, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 24,000 people have been killed, including 13,000 suicides, since the beginning of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archives website.
Following the recent shootings, a modest federal law was passed providing for increased funding for school safety and mental health.
*With information from AFP
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