Prosecutors within the penalty trial of Florida faculty shooter Nikolas Cruz will start their rebuttal case Tuesday, difficult his attorneys' rivalry that he murdered 17 folks as a result of his delivery mom abused alcohol throughout being pregnant, a situation they are saying went untreated.
Prosecutor Mike Satz's group is predicted to name specialists who will testify Cruz has delinquent persona dysfunction — in lay phrases, he is a sociopath — and totally chargeable for his Feb. 14, 2018, assault at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty.
In line with the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), folks with delinquent persona dysfunction commit "exploitive, delinquent and felony conduct with no regret." They normally haven't any regard for others, do not comply with the regulation, cannot maintain constant relationships or employment and use manipulation for private acquire, the NIH says.
Prosecutors will wish to reemphasize Cruz "understood precisely" what he was doing in the course of the bloodbath and will "formulate and perform a plan," mentioned David S. Weinstein, a Miami protection lawyer and former prosecutor.
Robert Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern College's regulation faculty, mentioned prosecution specialists may also probably testify that even when Cruz's mind was broken by his delivery mom's ingesting, that is true of hundreds of different People they usually do not commit mass homicide.
"In the event that they did, we might be having mass murders on an unprecedented scale," he mentioned.
Cruz, who turned 24 on Saturday, pleaded responsible final October to murdering 14 Stoneman Douglas college students and three workers members. The seven-man, five-woman jury will resolve whether or not he's sentenced to demise or life with out parole, weighing aggravating elements introduced by prosecutors towards the protection's mitigating circumstances. A juror might additionally vote for all times out of mercy for Cruz. For the previous Stoneman Douglas pupil to obtain a demise sentence, the jury should unanimously agree.
Satz's group instructed Circuit Choose Elizabeth Scherer their presentation might take two weeks, however Jarvis and Weinstein query whether or not that is an excessive amount of for a jury that started listening to proof in July.
Jurors could also be desirous to deliberate, so Satz ought to preserve the rebuttal case targeted and to the purpose, they mentioned.
"Do not get grasping," Weinstein mentioned.
Jarvis mentioned legal professionals too usually suppose that if they only add extra witnesses and proof, that makes their case stronger. However in a trial like Cruz's the place the choice is not whether or not he is responsible however what sentence he deserves, Jarvis believes that by rebuttal every juror is aware of his or her vote. Any reconsideration will not come till deliberations.
"In case you do an extended rebuttal, that makes jurors suppose, 'Perhaps the protection actually did rating some factors that I did not notice,'" Jarvis mentioned.
Satz saved his fundamental case easy, specializing in Cruz's eight months of planning, the seven minutes he stalked the halls of a three-story classroom constructing, firing 140 photographs with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, and his escape.
He performed safety movies of the capturing and confirmed grotesque crime scene and post-mortem images. Academics and college students testified about watching others die. He took the jury to the fenced-off constructing, which stays blood-stained and bullet-pocked. Dad and mom and spouses gave tearful and offended statements about their loss.
Cruz's attorneys by no means questioned the horror he inflicted, however targeted on their perception that his delivery mom's heavy ingesting throughout being pregnant left him with fetal alcohol spectrum dysfunction. Their specialists mentioned his weird, troubling and generally violent conduct beginning at age 2 was misdiagnosed as attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction, that means he by no means bought the right remedy. That left his widowed adoptive mom overwhelmed, they mentioned.
The protection minimize their case quick, calling solely about 25 of the 80 witnesses they mentioned would testify. They by no means introduced up Cruz's highschool years or referred to as his youthful half-brother, Zachary, whom they accused of bullying.
That can restrict what the prosecution can elevate in rebuttal — any proof or testimony will need to have some tie to what the protection introduced.
Prosecutors have mentioned they plan to point out racist slurs Cruz wrote on his backpack and on-line and the swastikas drawn on the gun he used and the boots he wore. Though there isn't a rivalry that the assault was racially motivated, prosecutors argue the phrases and Nazi symbols present his lack of regard for others.
Scherer, the choose, rejected an try by Cruz's attorneys to dam the swastikas' presentation, which they argued is unnecessarily provocative. His attorneys additionally complained that, regardless of pretrial motions they filed, Scherer didn't rule they have been admissible till after jury choice. That meant they could not ask potential panelists whether or not seeing swastikas would prejudice their verdict.
Jarvis and Weinstein mentioned the prosecution have to be cautious about what rebuttal proof they current as a result of in the event that they go too far they may threat an appellate courtroom overturning a demise sentence, that means the case must be retried.
"As a prosecutor, there comes a degree in each trial the place the longer you are up there, you are solely hurting your self," Jarvis mentioned. "Have we reached that time on this trial? I feel we've got."