Prosecutors of Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz referred to as for an investigation Friday after a juror mentioned one other panelist threatened her in the course of the deliberations that ended with a life sentence for the homicide of 17 folks 4 years in the past at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty.
Prosecutor Carolyn McCann informed Circuit Choose Elizabeth Scherer throughout a short listening to that prosecutors usually are not making an attempt to invalidate Thursday's jury vote and reported the menace just for security causes and so the Broward County Sheriff's Workplace can examine.
Of their written movement asking for the listening to, prosecutors mentioned the juror informed them one other juror did one thing throughout deliberations that "she perceived to be a menace."
McCann mentioned they didn't ask any additional questions as a result of they did not need to taint any investigation and mentioned the Broward state lawyer's workplace has no intention of getting concerned additional.
"We do not need to contact this with a 10-foot pole," she mentioned.
Scherer agreed that if a doable crime was dedicated, deputies ought to examine. The data has been turned over to sheriff's investigators, who will contact the juror.
Florida legal protection attorneys Richard Escobar and David Weinstein, who're each former prosecutors, mentioned in interviews that even when a menace was made to a juror, the jury's resolution can't be overturned due to double jeopardy, or making an attempt the identical defendant twice for a similar crime.
Weinstein pointed to a Nineteen Nineties case involving two drug kingpins who bribed a jury and have been acquitted. Even beneath that circumstance, prosecutors could not retry the duo for drug trafficking, however did convict them on expenses stemming from the bribery.
Scherer mentioned two jurors tried to talk to her after Thursday's resolution was introduced, however mentioned she informed them that would not be acceptable.
Scherer mentioned a bailiff informed her later that one juror wished to talk to her throughout Thursday's studying of the choice. That juror sat slumped over in the course of the 50-minute studying however did nothing apparent to point he wished Scherer's consideration. When the jurors have been polled, he agreed the life sentence was the panel's resolution.
Jurors have informed native TV stations that the ultimate vote was 9-3 for dying, with one of many three voters for all times adamant she would by no means change her thoughts. Beneath Florida regulation, a dying sentence requires a unanimous vote, and jurors determined there was no level in persevering with deliberations.
Which means Scherer will sentence the shooter to life with out parole at a Nov. 1 listening to — a punishment whose announcement left many households of the victims angered, baffled and in tears. They are going to be allowed to deal with the shooter on the listening to.
Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas informed native reporters "It actually got here all the way down to a particular (juror) that he (Cruz) was mentally in poor health."
The 24-year-old pleaded responsible a yr in the past to murdering 14 Stoneman Douglas college students and three employees members, and wounding 17 others, on Feb. 14, 2018.
The jury unanimously agreed there have been aggravating elements to warrant a doable dying sentence, akin to agreeing that the murders have been "particularly heinous, atrocious, or merciless."
However a number of jurors additionally discovered mitigating elements, akin to untreated childhood issues stemming from his beginning mom's extreme consuming throughout being pregnant. In the long run, the jury couldn't unanimously agree that the annoying elements outweighed the mitigators.
The jurors pledged in the course of the choice course of that they might vote for a dying sentence, however some mother and father, together with some who attended the trial virtually every day, questioned whether or not they have been all being sincere.
One juror despatched a brief handwritten notice to the choose Thursday defending her vote for a life sentence and denying she meant to vote that manner earlier than the trial started.
"The deliberations have been very tense and a few jurors turned extraordinarily sad as soon as I discussed that I might vote for all times," she wrote. She didn't clarify her vote. McCann mentioned she is just not the juror who reported the doable menace.
Thomas didn't say whether or not that adamant life vote was hers.