FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jurors at the upcoming trial of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooter still will get a chance to visit the scene of the crime, even though the killer’s guilt is no longer in question, Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has ruled.
Lawyers defending confessed killer Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting, had argued that the site visit was no longer necessary and would only inflame the passions of the jury, which will be tasked with recommending whether Cruz is sentenced to life in prison or death by lethal injection.
Scherer had originally approved a site visit as part of the first phase of the trial, which was rendered moot when Cruz pleaded guilty.
