FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A judge’s willingness to strike more than 200 jurors from consideration in the Parkland mass shooting trial was an error so significant, according to lawyers for the defendant, that the state should no longer be permitted to seek the death penalty.
Attorneys for Nikolas Cruz filed a motion Wednesday morning asking Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer to end jury selection and prepare to sentence Cruz to life in prison for the murders of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018. At the very least, defense lawyers argue, the judge must reinstate the jurors she previously struck.
Prosecutors fired back with a response early Wednesday afternoon calling the defense arguments baseless and “a blatant attempt to goad the court into reacting unfavorably,” effectively instigating an issue for an appeal.
