Parkland sentencing - live: Cruz’s siblings to testify as defence set to present case against death penalty
The defence team representing Nikolas Cruz, the man convicted of shooting dead 17 people and injuring 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018, is set to present their case for their client on Monday at his sentencing trial.
Led by lead public defender Melisa McNeill, the team is hoping to get Cruz off with a sentence of life in prison rather than the death penalty.
Cruz was 19 when he went on a shooting spree in what proved to be one of the deadliest school massacres in US history. He subsequently surrendered to police and pleaded guilty to 17 charges of first-degree murder and 17 of attempted murder.
Cruz was a student at the school with a string of disciplinary issues until February 2017, when he was sent to an adult learning centre.
The defence is expected to present Cruz’s troubled upbringing as reason to deliver a life sentence rather than the death penalty, which will reportedly include citations of his mental health, bullying and the deaths of both his adoptive father when he was 5 and his adoptive mother’s four months before the deadly Valentine’s Day attack.
Defence’s opening arguments in Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing case will highlight difficult upbringing
10:51 , Johanna Chisholm
The deadliest US mass shooting to ever reach trial gets underway again Monday, as the defence team arguing for a life sentence over the death penalty for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz is expected to detail how his difficult childhood played a role in the deadly events that unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day in 2018.
Melisa McNeill, the lead public defender for her 23-year-old client, has deferred presenting the defence’s case from the start of the trial a month ago.
It’s expected that she and her team will begin laying out her client’s life history, which will start with his birth mother’s abuse of alcohol and cocaine while she was pregnant with Cruz, and will also include details about his severe mental and emotional problems, his alleged sexual abuse by a “trusted peer,” the bullying he suffered through, and the deaths of both his adoptive father when he was 5 and his adoptive mother’s four months before his the deadly massacre.
Live blog coverage of Parkland shooter’s sentencing trial
10:33 , Johanna Chisholm
Welcome to the live blog coverage of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing trial, which resumes again on Monday at the Broward County Judicial Complex in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Follow along here for live updates from the proceedings.
