Parkland school shooting trial delayed until at least summ

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The trial of Parkland college taking pictures defendant Nikolas Cruz changed into delayed Thursday till no decrease than next summer, when he will face a death penalty case stemming from the February 2018 bloodbath that left 17 of us ineffective.

Broward Circuit Think Elizabeth Scherer agreed to lengthen the trial’s start from the unique Jan. 27 date after defense attorneys pleaded for more time and prosecutors acknowledged they accumulate been spirited to accept a few months’ lengthen “in an abundance of caution,” in step with undoubtedly one of their court filings.

“I’m not going to region it out indefinitely,” Scherer acknowledged at a hearing. “This case is going to be tried this summer sooner or later.”

Defense attorneys for Cruz also acknowledged they attain not desire a prolonged lengthen but simply need more time to put collectively for a case of such magnitude.

“We appropriate ought to region something that is affordable,” acknowledged Melisa McNeill, an assistant public defender representing Cruz. “We want to build up this case resolved by the conclude of the year. That has always been our goal.”

Scherer failed to region but any other explicit trial date but did schedule a March 23 hearing to resolve how the case is progressing.

Cruz, 21, faces 17 counts of first-level homicide and 17 counts of tried homicide within the Valentine’s Day 2018 bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College. He faces the death penalty if convicted, even supposing his attorneys say he will plead guilty in return for a lifestyles jail sentence, an provide rejected by prosecutors.

In their motion for a continuance, defense attorneys eminent that of 38 capital punishment cases in Broward County since 1994, the frequent time they remained pending between arrest and trial changed into 52 months, or a minute over four years.

On per chance the most modern schedule, Cruz’s trial would start decrease than two years after the mass taking pictures on Feb. 14, 2018. He changed into arrested that identical day. Defense attorneys say that is much too rapid for them to adequately put collectively a defense in a case of such magnitude.

The defense motion also functions accessible ought to not any decrease than 1,000 witnesses identified by prosecutors within the case, and each and each of them ought to be interviewed by Cruz’s attorneys. There are about 4 million pages of proof and hundreds of photos, movies and social media posts.