Parkland school shooter’s defense lawyer urges jury not to seek death penalty

An attorney representing Nikolas Cruz, who prosecutors say murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018, urged a jury on Monday not to seek the death penalty, citing mental health issues that stem from alcohol abuse by his mother when she was pregnant with him.

Cruz pleaded guilty in October to the murder of 17 people and the attempted murder of 17 people. He is facing the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The sentencing trial now underway comes more than four years after the February 2018 massacre. 

Prosecutors are pushing for the death penalty, while Cruz’s defense argues that the 23-year-old should receive life in prison without parole.

Public defender Melisa McNeill told the court Monday that Cruz’s biological mother abused drugs and alcohol while Cruz was in the womb, which caused brain damage. She cited that as the main reason to spare his life.

“Wounded and damaged people wound and damage other people because they are in pain,” McNeill said. “We must understand the person behind the crime.”

“You’ll hear that he writes disturbing things, like a school shooter manifesto. Horrible things. We’re not hiding that from you. But his brain is broken. He’s a damaged human being. And that’s why these things happen,” she said.

Cruz’s guilty plea, McNeill argued, guaranteed he would be punished. “The question that now remains … is how he will be punished,” she said.

According to Florida law, a death sentence must be unanimously agreed upon by the 12-person jury, meaning Cruz’s defense needs to convince only one juror not to back the sentence. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer is presiding.

Prosecutors earlier this month led the jury on a rare trip to the Parkland high school, where the crime scene has been left essentially untouched since the shooting. Cruz was reportedly invited to join the trip but declined to attend.