FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The judge in the Parkland mass shooting trial pulled the plug on jury selection Monday, then started over with a new panel of potential jurors to decide the fate of confessed killer Nikolas Cruz.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer’s decision scrapped two weeks of work narrowing the field of jurors from more than 1,200 to over 200 who, unless she changes her mind, will be told their services are no longer required. The judge is now telling new potential jurors the trial will not begin until June 21, a little over a week after her last released schedule.
Monday’s decision, which is facing a defense objection, came in response to a prosecution argument holding that errors in the jury selection process would be grounds for appeal if Cruz were to be sentenced to death for the murders of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
