Evidently, one or more jurors were sufficiently convinced the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors. A unanimous jury is required to recommend death so in the lack of that, life in prison without parole is the default.
The Judge was prepared to formally sentence immediately, but the prosecution insisted on going forward with that dog and pony show known as victim impact statements, so sentencing will be delayed until November 1st.
I am not a fan of victim impact statements. While it may or may not make the victims families feel better to lecture a defendant, it is pointless here, since there is only one possible sentence and the Judge has no discretion. Even if there were options, I don’t think statements made, should influence the Judge’s decision.
Nikolas Cruz will have 60+ years to think about things as he sits in the Florida State Prison at Starke for the rest of his life.
The jury foreman has already spoken to the media and indicated that he supported the death sentence as did most of the other jurors. But it has to be unanimous, so the defense only had to sway one, which they did successfully.
And given that no outcome change can come from anything else said at this point, the only outcome from this is to give victims their verbal pound of flesh. Maybe that helps someone.
PS: I break from the conservative pack when it comes to the death penalty. I am fully opposed to it.
I’m 95-99% opposed, find it hard to fully commit to a 100% anti death penalty stance. The name Alfred Bourgeois readily comes to mind in that 1-5% pro stance; thank you Donald Trump for taking out that trash as well as Lisa Montgomery.
From arguments that it violates the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment to the amount of spending that goes into basic costs of housing condemned throughout lengthy appeals, I’m not a supporter.
It appears his IQ is pretty average and coordination pretty good for someone born with FAS. Don’t such children tend to have Downs Syndrome facial features as well? In any case I’m not losing sleep over LWOP.
Let me jog your memory. You remember the guy who didn’t bitch and whine about school shootings like a little girl every time he came into a thread? You know, the dude was totally not a drama queen?
I’m not sure why there was a trial. Just take him out back and shoot him. Let a victim’s family member do it. Hell, let all that want to get in on it.
Big financial waste and some pretty sick ■■■■■Had to ask a boyfriend who had befriended a paroled trustee inmate from Florida’s Starke Prison to please not give me the grisly details on how the inmates are prepped and how they die (Edward cleaned the chamber after it was used, a trustee inmate serving for something like strong armed robbery).
And it’s illegal to execute sick inmates. I dealt with my share of the medical records working for a now defunct contractor. One exam taxpayers helped fund involved making sure an inmate’s thyroid functioned normally before he was burned at the stake, aka the chair
Nikolas Cruz’ life in prison will most likely be just as bad.
Victims have a right to be heard. I had to sit through many people talk about how the person who murdered my son was such a good boy and helped his grandparents and helped at the church when he was a kid. How going to prison would be such a hardship on his grandparents who depended on him. The truth is he depended on them. They paid for everything. Including his attorneys.
If they got to speak in open court about how his punishment affected them, then myself and my family have a right to talk in open court about how his crime affected us.
The judge should know.
