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Thread: Nikolas Jacob Cruz Sentenced to LWOP in 2018 FL Multiple Murders

  1. #171
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Seems like Cruz may be building up an ID claim to avoid execution
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

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  2. #172
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I rather he get sent to gen pop then some show sentence that we all know won't end in an execution.

    Waste of time going for death here.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #173
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Alleged Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz to plead guilty on all counts: report

    Nikolas Cruz is accused of shooting and killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018

    By Paul Best
    Fox News

    Nikolas Cruz, who is suspected of shooting and killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, will plead guilty to all 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder to avoid going to trial, FOX affiliate WSVN reports.

    The 23-year-old's defense team has previously said that their client would plead guilty to all counts in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors have rejected the offer and indicated they would seek a death sentence.

    Cruz is due back in court Friday, when his attorneys will announce his plea, according to WSVN.

    The Public Defender's Office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/alleged-f...-counts-report
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #174
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Since the death penalty is still on the table, the judge better give him death or be thrown out
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  5. #175
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Helen View Post
    And sometimes they accept a guilty plea but don't waive the dp and the inmate goes to DR. This is always the best outcome.
    I really hope this happens if he pleads guilty.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #176
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Related:

    Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to charges related to law enforcement officer assault

    By Taylor Lang
    WBPF News

    Nikolas Cruz pled guilty Friday to the charges related to attacking a Broward County sergeant in jail.

    He arrived in court Friday morning to change four plea charges.

    He pled guilty to:

    • attempted aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon
    • battery on a law enforcement officer
    • depriving an officer of means of protection
    • attempted use of a self-defense weapon against a law enforcement officer

    His defense attorney originally asked for the change to take place during a hearing on Oct. 20, but the judge said this would inconvenience other members of the court and said this needed to happen sooner. The defense attorney said Cruz wished to be well-dressed when he changed his plea.

    When the judge was asked which pleas specifically were going to be changed, in regards to the charges relating to the assault or to the Parkland high school shooting, she said that was a premature discussion and would be discussed when Cruz entered the court.

    The next hearing is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday.

    The hearing in Broward County Circuit Court was scheduled abruptly Thursday and didn't describe its purpose.

    The hearing was before Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, court records show. No trial date had been set.

    The Broward County state attorney’s office issued a statement Thursday night in response to questions about plea changes in relation to the Parkland school shooting:

    “We have to refer all of your questions to the defense. There have been no plea negotiations with the prosecution. If he pleads guilty, there would still be a penalty phase.”

    His lawyers have repeatedly offered to plead guilty in return for a guaranteed sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors have refused to drop their pursuit of the death penalty. A guilty plea would both avoid a traumatic, lengthy trial and still allow a jury to decide Cruz’s fat

    https://www.wpbf.com/article/parklan...sault/37972120
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #177
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Parents of Parkland Victim Say They Want Nikolas Cruz Executed As He Plans Guilty Plea

    The parents of one of the victims in the 2018 Parkland shooting said that they want suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz to be executed for carrying out the attack, the Associated Press reported. Cruz's attorneys announced Friday that he plans to plead guilty to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at the Florida high school, leaving him to contemplate a potential death penalty or life in prison without parole.

    Mitch and Annika Dworet were the only parents of a Parkland shooting victim who attended a hearing for Cruz, 23, in Broward County, where he pleaded guilty to separate charges stemming from an attack against a jail guard in November 2018. Their 17-year-old son Nick was killed in the shooting, and their other son Alex was wounded, the AP reported.

    Both said that they're relieved that Cruz's case was progressing and they could move closer to getting closure for the loss of their child. While Mitch said he tries to think more about their sons than the case, Annika Dworet said that both want justice and "it's time," referring to an execution.

    "We would like to see him suffer," she said.

    Cruz attorney David Wheeler told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that he will plead guilty Wednesday to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The pleas will come with no conditions and prosecutors still plan to seek the death penalty. That will be decided by a jury, with the judge hoping to start the trial in January after choosing a jury from thousands of prospects starting in November.

    Cruz will also plead guilty to 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. He was not initially present during the hearing, but later entered the Broward County courtroom to plead guilty to attacking a jail guard nine months after the shooting. He answered the judge's question about his competency in a steady voice as sheriff's deputies watched over him and spectators.

    Cruz said he understood that prosecutors can use the conviction as an aggravating factor when they later argue for his execution.

    The trial has been delayed by the pandemic and arguments over what evidence could be presented to the jury, frustrating some victims' families.

    Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow was killed, said in a phone interview that he wants Cruz executed. "Death by lethal injection seems too peaceful to me. I'd rather see a hanging in a public square."

    In the aftermath of the shooting, Parkland student activists formed March for Our Lives, a group that rallied hundreds of thousands around the country for tighter gun laws, including a nationally televised march in Washington, D.C.

    The decision by Cruz to plead guilty came unexpectedly. He had been set to go on trial next week for the attack on the Broward County jail guard.

    Cruz and his lawyers had long offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors had rejected that deal, saying the case deserved a death sentence. Both sides declined comment Friday.

    Attorney David Weinstein, a former Florida prosecutor who is not involved in the case, said by pleading guilty to the murder charges, Cruz's lawyers will be able to tell the jury in the penalty hearing "that he has accepted responsibility, has shown remorse and saved the victim's families the additional trauma of a guilt phase trial."

    The jurors also won't repeatedly see the security videos that reportedly captured the shooting in graphic detail. Their goal will be to persuade one juror to vote for a life sentence—unanimity will be required to sentence Cruz to death.

    Cruz's rampage crushed the veneer of safety in Parkland, an upper-middle-class community outside Fort Lauderdale with little crime.

    Cruz was a longtime, but troubled resident. Broward sheriff's deputies were frequently called to the home in an upscale neighborhood he shared with his widowed mother and younger brother for disturbances, but they said nothing was ever reported that could have led to his arrest. A state commission that investigated the shooting agreed.

    Cruz alternated between traditional schools and those for troubled students.

    He attended Stoneman Douglas starting in 10th grade, but his troubles remained—at one point, he was prohibited from carrying a backpack to make sure he didn't carry a weapon. Still, he was allowed to participate on the school's rifle team.

    He was expelled about a year before the attack after numerous incidents of unusual behavior and at least one fight. He began posting videos online in which he threatened to commit violence, including at the school. It was about this time he purchased the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle he would use in the shooting.

    When Cruz's mother died of pneumonia in 2017, four months before the shooting, he began staying with friends, taking his 10 guns with him.

    Someone, worried about his emotional state, called the FBI a month before the shooting to warn agents he might kill people. The information was never forwarded to the agency's South Florida office.

    Another acquaintance called the Broward Sheriff's Office with a similar warning, but when the deputy learned Cruz was then living with a family friend in neighboring Palm Beach County he told the caller to contact that sheriff's office.

    In the weeks before the shooting, Cruz began making videos proclaiming he was going to be the "next school shooter of 2018."

    The shooting happened on Valentine's Day. Students had exchanged gifts and many were dressed in red.

    Cruz, then 19, arrived at the campus that afternoon in an Uber, assembled his rifle in a stairwell and then opened fire in the three-story classroom building.

    Cruz eventually dropped his rifle and fled, blending in with his victims as police stormed the building. He was captured about an hour later walking through a residential neighborhood.

    The shooting led to a state law that requires all Florida public schools to have an armed guard on campus during class hours.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...lea/ar-AAPzST2
    https://archive.is/389Oo

  8. #178
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    The Parkland shooter may face the death penalty, here's how that process could play out

    Judge Elizabeth Scherer is presiding over both the battery case and the capital case.

    The confessed Parkland school shooter is expected to change his plea agreement Wednesday morning.

    The decision came unexpectedly. He had been set to start trial soon in a separate case for attacking a Broward Sheriff's Office sergeant in jail. Instead, last Friday, he plead guilty to all 4 criminal accounts of assault on a law enforcement officer, including attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. And his attorneys made an announcement: Nikolas Cruz, now 23, will plead guilty to 17 counts of 1st-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted 1st-degree murder in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his defense lawyers told presiding Judge Elizabeth Scherer.

    The change in Cruz's plea in the capital case this week would spare relatives and survivors from the stress and trauma of a long, public criminal trial.

    Instead of going to trial, the case would enter the penalty phase, where a jury of 12 people would decide if he receives life without parole or the death penalty. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

    Under Florida law, the death penalty requires a jury to be unanimous in their decision.

    Lori Alhadeff, who's 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed, said she has been waiting for more than 3 years for the confessed shooter to have his day in court.

    “You know, I'm never going to be able to heal, this is very painful for me and for my family. But we are ultimately seeking that he dies from the death penalty,” she told the South Florida Roundup Friday.

    Mitch and Annika Dworet, the parents of Nicholas Dworet, 17, who was killed in the shooting and Alexander Dworet, who was shot but survived, believe the death penalty is the appropriate justice.

    “We would like to see the death penalty, absolutely,“ said Mitch Dworet. “No doubt in our minds.”

    Cruz's defense team has maintained that he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that deal. If he does change his plea, instead of going to trial, the case would enter the penalty phase, or the later phase, of a death penalty trial.

    WLRN's Caitie Switalski Muñoz spoke with Stephen Harper, professor emeritus and supervising attorney of the Death Penalty Clinic at Florida International University, about what pleading guilty could mean, some of the history of the death penalty in Florida, and a timeline for what's next in his case.

    The interview has been edited lightly for clarity.

    HARPER: If he pleads guilty or someone pleads guilty, then [the defense team] will make a decision as to whether they went to waive a jury or not wave the jury. Most everyone will not waive a jury.

    Then you impaneled a jury that is only going to decide whether a person should be executed or should be spend the rest of their life in prison. Both sides are going to spend a lot of time in their voir dire. Both the prosecutor and the defense [are] trying to find people who will work, who will rule their way. The fact that there are so many people killed in this case, the more people that have been killed, the more publicity about it, the more difficult it is for the court or for both sides to find a fair juror.

    WLRN: When you think about a death penalty case, there's usually two phases, right? The first phase determines whether or not you're finding someone guilty. But in [this] case, there's going to be a possible plea change. So we’re looking at just going straight into the penalty phase of a death penalty case. And for those kind of things, what is the responsibility of a jury in that state of a death penalty trial?

    A person can waive the jury and have the judge make the ultimate decision.

    But if that person does not waive the jury in a penalty phase and it's only a penalty phase jury, then that jury would be picked by the prosecutor and the defense lawyers. They would go back and forth. They would pick a jury only to hear the penalty phase as to whether this person should be sentenced to death or sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

    And very few people let the judge make the decision. Most people want to have the jury make the decision because it only takes one juror to vote for life for the judge and the court to come back under the law with a jury sentence of life.

    Is it true that potential jurors who are morally opposed to the death penalty aren't chosen for those cases?

    The law is basically that if you are adamantly opposed to the death penalty, you cannot serve on the jury. The test is whether you, notwithstanding your personal beliefs, whether you can weigh the evidence, follow the law and make a decision.

    If you're thinking about a typical death penalty case and the penalty phase ... When does that start in a typical case after jury selection? Is it six months? Is it weeks?

    As my father, who was a lawyer, taught me the words, "it depends." Every case is different. Sometimes they start up almost immediately. Other times, judges will stop and give a defense an opportunity to get all of its witnesses together and it may be months. So, it really depends, but in a case where somebody has waived the trial and now they're starting up for only a sentencing hearing, it would really depend on what experts either side is calling in [and] their availability.

    But I would presume it would be pretty quickly after the person enters a plea.

    CSM: Is there a world in which a defendant can plead guilty, but with conditions, like somebody saying, 'Oh, I'll plead guilty if we take the death penalty off the table?”

    SH: The negotiations between the prosecutor and the defense frequently address those kinds of issues. I have represented many people who the prosecutor says, 'Listen, if he pleads guilty and takes a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, we will waive seeking the death penalty.'

    But the state has the ultimate decision making power, and they can say it doesn't really matter if he pleads guilty or not guilty, we are not going to waive seeking the death penalty.

    So, of course, 1st degree murder is a capital offense. Is attempted first-degree murder or attempted murder also a capital offense?

    No, the only offense in which somebody can get the death penalty is to be found guilty of first degree murder and one of what we call the “statutory aggravating factors” exists.

    So, for example, if you kill somebody and you do it with [in] cold, calculated and premeditated or heinous, atrocious and cruel circumstances … those are what we call aggravating factors. There are about [16] aggravating factors in Florida, and the state has to prove one of those factors before somebody can be eligible for the death penalty.

    What does a defendant give up by pleading guilty and just moving to a penalty phase?

    Well, he gives up his right to have the trial and the trial that the burden is on the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty as charged, and he gives up that right.

    There are some advantages to pleading guilty when you are guilty, if nothing else, because you're acknowledging your guilt. And that goes some distance to convincing some people, not all people, that you are accepting responsibility. And that may end up with a lesser penalty.

    (source: WLRN news)
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  9. #179
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Families of Parkland shooting victims reach $25 million settlement with school district

    The families of the victims of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla. have reached a $25 million settlement with the Broward County School District, an attorney for some of the victims confirmed to The Hill.

    The settlement will go to 17 families who filed wrongful death lawsuits, 16 out of the 17 victims who were shot but survived, and a separate 19 victims who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

    David Brill, who represents the parents of four students who were killed and a fifth student who was injured, said that the settlement will go to 52 families and victims of the shooting. The parties are finalizing the settlement.

    “There isn’t enough money in existence that would compensate the victims and their families adequately,” Brill said in a statement. “But this settlement provides a measure of justice and accountability to them and the other families and victims.”

    The Broward County School District told The Hill that the matter continues to be pending litigation, which it does not comment on.

    News of the settlement comes as the alleged gunman, Nikolas Cruz, faces over 30 charges related to the February 2018 shooting that left students and faculty dead.

    Cruz reportedly plans to plead guilty to 17 counts of murder and another 17 counts of attempted murder. He faces the death penalty or life in prison over the killings.

    Survivors of the shooting notably became activists for gun control and have lobbied Congress for federal gun laws. Efforts to pass federal gun reform have stalled amid a stalemate in Congress.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...s-and-families
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  10. #180
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to 2018 Parkland school massacre

    By TERRY SPENCER
    The Associated Press

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday in the 2018 high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

    Cruz, 23, entered his pleas in a courtroom attended by a dozen relatives of victims after answering a long list of questions from Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer aimed at confirming his mental competency. He was charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for those wounded in the Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, located just outside Fort Lauderdale.

    A penalty trial will determine if Cruz will receive a sentence of death or life in prison without parole. Scherer plans to begin screening jurors next month in hopes testimony can begin in January.

    His attorneys announced his intention to plead guilty during a hearing last week.

    Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime died in the shooting, said he visited her grave this week to ask her for the strength to get through Wednesday’s hearing.

    “She was the toughest, wisest person I ever knew,” he said. “My daughter always fought for what was right. My daughter despised bullies and would put herself in the middle of someone being bullied to make it stop.”

    The guilty pleas will set the stage for a penalty trial in which 12 jurors will determine whether Cruz should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. Given the case’s notoriety, Scherer plans to screen thousands of prospective jurors. Hearings are scheduled throughout November and December, with a goal to start testimony in January.

    Cruz killed the 14 students and three staff members on Valentine’s Day 2018 during a seven-minute rampage through a three-story building at Stoneman Douglas, investigators said. They said he shot victims in the hallways and in classrooms with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Cruz had been expelled from Stoneman Douglas a year earlier after a history of threatening, frightening, unusual and sometimes violent behavior that dated back to preschool.

    The shootings caused some Stoneman Douglas students to launch the March for Our Lives movement, which pushes for stronger gun restrictions nationally.

    Since days after the shooting, Cruz’s attorneys had offered to have him plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, saying that would spare the community the emotional turmoil of reliving the attack at trial. But longtime Broward State Attorney Mike Satz rejected the offer, saying Cruz deserved a death sentence, and appointed himself lead prosecutor. Satz, 79, stepped down as state attorney in January after 44 years, but remains Cruz’s chief prosecutor.

    His successor, Harold Pryor, is opposed to the death penalty but has said he will follow the law. Like Satz, he never accepted the defense offer — as an elected official, that would have been difficult, even in liberal Broward County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1.

    By having Cruz plead guilty, his attorneys will be able to argue during the penalty hearing that he took responsibility for his actions.

    https://apnews.com/article/parkland-...851395b252bd4b
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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