Opening arguments have begun in the penalty phase of the trial of Nikolas Cruz, the man who killed 17 people at a Florida high school on February 14, 2018 – one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history.
About 50 family members of the victims were in the courtroom on Monday, sitting together in a roped-off section. It was not clear if anyone, aside from Cruz’s defence lawyers, was there to support him. The trial, which is expected to last about four months, was supposed to begin in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic and legal fights delayed it.
The seven-man, five-woman panel, backed up by 10 alternates, will hear from lead prosecutor Mike Satz, who is expected to highlight Cruz’s brutality as he stalked a three-story classroom building, firing his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle down hallways and into classrooms. Cruz sometimes walked back to wounded victims and killed them with a second volley of shots.
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