As the trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz reconvenes in Florida, the defense will begin presenting its case to spare him the death penalty for the Feb. 2018 rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 14 students and three staff members dead. Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for people he’d injured but who had survived. A jury will decide whether he deserves the death penalty.
On Monday, lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill is expected to give her opening argument, as Cruz’s team opted to save the statement until after the prosecution had presented its case. The defense has named more than a dozen people it may call as witnesses, including Cruz’s younger brother and his 35-year-old half-sister, Danielle Woodard, who is being transported from a jail in Miami, according to an Aug. 15 court filing, where she has been awaiting trial for a carjacking charge. Cruz was adopted and had no relationship with their biological mother, who died in 2021, but her history of substance abuse is expected to play a large role in the case to spare Cruz’ life.
His lawyers recently dropped an attempt to submit a brain scan as evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome, but are still expected to highlight the mental and behavioral issues he struggled with since pre-school and the holes in his treatment. The witness list includes several mental health counselors.
The prosecution rested their case on Aug. 4, after which court took a brief recess and then held hearings without the jury present. During the prosecution’s case, 12 jurors and 10 alternates spent three weeks viewing harrowing videos from the crime scene, listening to autopsy evidence, and hearing statements from the 17 victims’ friends and family. Families described how holidays have become impossible to celebrate, how one parent sprays her daughter’s perfume sometimes to feel close to her, how a father struggles to comfort his son, who survived the shooting, while his daughter did not. Family members of victims in the gallery cried and held each other. At one point, parents of a victim shouted “Shut it off” when jurors were shown a cell phone video from the shooting with the sounds of gunshots and children screaming. During portions of the testimony, Cruz’ defense lawyers dabbed their eyes.
The prosecution concluded its case with a tour of the crime scene, the freshman building at Stoneman Douglas, which was closed to the public but has remained largely untouched since the shooting four years ago. Walking through the halls, jurors saw walls marked with blood and bullet holes, Valentine’s Day cards and dried rose petals, shattered glass, laptops left open, and classroom assignments left unfinished.
In his opening statement on July 18, lead prosecutor Michael Satz said he planned to show that seven aggravating factors warranted the death penalty in this case, including that Cruz had knowingly created a great risk of death to many people; that the murders were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel; and that they were committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
According to Florida law, a death sentence requires unanimous recommendation from the jury. If even one juror disagrees, Cruz will instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.