FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Law enforcement officers described injured Parkland students pleading for help and finding body after body of people who were defenseless, or others who spent their final breaths providing cover for students to escape, during the fifth day of testimony in the penalty trial of the confessed gunman.
But before any of those officers took the stand on Friday, defense lawyer Tamara Curtis requested that the prosecution stop asking witnesses to identify shooter Nikolas Cruz, arguing that “important death sentences are not imposed arbitrarily or capriciously” by jurors being exposed to constant irrelevant evidence.
Jeff Marcus, assistant state attorney, replied, saying when you ask a jury to put someone to death, “they need to be very certain this is the person that committed the crime.”
