FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jury selection in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting case entered the second of three phases Monday, with lawyers looking to weed out those whose views on the death penalty are too inflexible to be part of a fair trial.
Confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder, so the jury is being asked only to decide his punishment. A jury’s unanimous vote is required to sentence Cruz to death; otherwise he will be sentenced to life in prison.
The parents of two slain victims, Nicholas Dworet and Luke Hoyer, sat in the audience Monday, watching silently as prosecutor Mike Satz and defense lawyer Casey Secor asked their questions and listened to juror responses.
“I’m not opposed to the death penalty,” one panelist said. “It’s just that I don’t know what the mitigating factors are in this case.”
“It’s a very big decision,” another one said. “It shouldn’t be taken lightly.” That juror was excused from the case after she said she believes in “an eye for an eye” when it comes to justice, even though she followed up by saying she would consider the evidence presented by the defense.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer adjusted her second-phase plan after it took four hours to get through four jurors, one at a time. Even quickening the pace, she said, it would take nine weeks to get through the approximately 400 jurors who survived the first phase of screening in April.
For the afternoon session, six panelists were reviewed at a time. Jurors will continue to be interviewed in groups Tuesday and Wednesday.
The third and final phase of jury selection was originally set to start later this month, but it’s not clear whether that plan has changed in light of an unexpected two-week delay due to a key attorney’s health issue. In the third phase, jurors will be asked about their knowledge of the case and whether they’ve already made up their minds.
In the end, a dozen jurors and eight alternates will be asked to hear the evidence for and against Cruz in the Valentine’s Day 2018 murders at the Parkland high school. The evidence presentation is expected to last all summer and into early fall.
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