Parkland shooting trial gets new start date
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. —The official start date for testimony in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting trial has been pushed back to account for the two-week delay caused by a key lawyer’s apparent illness this month.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer released a new trial schedule on Tuesday that wraps up jury selection by June 8 and begins opening statements and testimony on June 27.
That’s a week later than originally planned and gives both sides a chance to wrap up outstanding motions and issues that need to be resolved before jurors start hearing the facts of the case.
Lawyers are interviewing jurors in groups ranging from 5 to 11, grilling them to see whether their views on the death penalty are too extreme to fairly decide whether confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz deserves to be sentenced to death or life in prison for the 17 lives he took at the Parkland high school on Feb. 14, 2018.
Cruz pleaded guilty to the murders last October, but Florida still requires a unanimous jury verdict to sentence someone to death.
Scherer had originally planned to start testimony in the case at the beginning of June, but last-minute witnesses and motions from both sides pushed the tentative start date to the middle of the month. Two weeks ago, the lead defense attorney apparently fell ill and was unavailable for court until May 16.
Scherer released the newly revised schedule late Tuesday morning.
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