PARKLAND, Fla. — Jurors in the Parkland mass shooting trial were taken to the crime scene Thursday, a scene that is as much a time capsule as it is a towering piece of evidence in a criminal case that decides whether mercy should be offered to a gunman determined to kill as many people as he could.
The building has stood on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus for more than four years, an eyesore to many, for one purpose — a purpose finally realized Thursday as 22 jury members retraced the steps of gunman Nikolas Cruz, over, past and through the results of his deadly rampage through the school.
Prosecutors say the exercise was necessary to prove what Cruz did was “heinous, atrocious and cruel,” that it was “cold, calculated and premeditated,” and that it caused and risked “great bodily harm” to the victims. Among other considerations, those are the factors that have to be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt before the death penalty can be recommended, sentenced and carried out.
