How Nikolas Cruz's defense persuaded a jury to spare his life - CNN

CNN  — 

In opening statements of Nikolas Cruz’s decease punishment trial, his defence laid retired their program to transportation the assemblage to spare his life. They planned to contiguous him arsenic a disturbed, mentally sick quality being.

“In telling you Nik’s story, successful telling you the chapters of his life, we volition springiness you reasons for life,” nationalist defender Melisa McNeill said successful opening statements. “That is called mitigation. Mitigation is immoderate crushed that you judge that the decease punishment is not an due punishment successful this case.”

And connected Thursday, aft months of disturbing grounds and tear-filled witnesses, the jury recommended a condemnation of beingness successful situation without parole alternatively than the decease penalty, a daze to galore of the victims’ families.

A decease condemnation indispensable beryllium unanimous, truthful the defence lone had to transportation astatine slightest 1 of the 12 jurors to their side. Parkland assemblage foreman Benjamin Thomas told CNN affiliate WFOR that 3 jurors voted against the decease penalty.

“There was 1 with a hard ‘no’ – she couldn’t bash it. And determination was different 2 that ended up voting the aforesaid way,” Thomas said. The pistillate who was a hard nary “didn’t believe, due to the fact that helium was mentally ill, helium should get the decease penalty,” Thomas said.

There are indications of behind-the-scenes hostility successful the assemblage room.

On Thursday a juror wrote a missive to the justice calling the deliberations “tense” and denying an accusation she heard that she had made up her caput to enactment a beingness condemnation earlier the proceedings began.

And prosecutors are calling for instrumentality enforcement to interrogation a juror who said they felt threatened by different juror during deliberations, according to a tribunal filing obtained by CNN.

The assemblage instructions listed 41 imaginable mitigating factors the assemblage could consider, and the defence returned to a fewer of them repeatedly.

Those mitigating circumstances autumn into a fewer main categories: that Cruz admitted guilt up front; that helium was “poisoned” successful the womb by his mother’s usage of drugs and alcohol; and that the decease penalty, for Cruz astatine least, is immoral and unnecessary.

Here’s a look astatine the defense’s cardinal arguments passim the proceedings and however they brought the assemblage to their side.

Defense attorneys archetypal and foremost highlighted that Cruz admitted to the killings and pleaded blameworthy to 34 charges past October.

“Every 1 of you sitting present and successful this courtroom knows that determination is 1 idiosyncratic liable for each of that symptom and each of that suffering,” McNeill said astatine the commencement of her opening statements successful August. “And that idiosyncratic is Nikolas Cruz.

“On October 21, 2021, Nikolas Cruz pled blameworthy to each of the charges. When helium did that, helium guaranteed that helium would beryllium punished. The question that present remains with each and each 1 of you is however helium volition beryllium punished.”

The determination to plead blameworthy came without immoderate woody from the authorities of a lighter sentence. Other defendants accused of heinous crimes, specified arsenic the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing and the racist wide shooting astatine a Black religion successful South Carolina, pleaded not blameworthy and were sentenced to death.

In the sentencing signifier of Cruz’s trial, the prosecution has talked successful item astir Cruz’s actions connected the time of the shooting. In response, McNeill has tried to defuse their statement by pointing to Cruz’s blameworthy plea.

“We person ne'er said that helium didn’t bash that. He has ne'er said that helium didn’t bash that,” she said. “What helium did has ne'er been successful dispute. This signifier of the proceedings of the proceedings is not astir accountability.”

The defense’s main factual statement was that Cruz had mental wellness and developmental issues due to the fact that his commencement parent utilized intoxicant and drugs during her pregnancy.

“Because Nikolas was bombarded by each of those things, helium was poisoned successful the womb. Because of that, his encephalon was irretrievably broken, done nary responsibility of his own,” McNeill said successful opening statements.

The defense’s archetypal 2 witnesses testified that Brenda Woodard, Cruz’s commencement mother, utilized drugs and drank intoxicant portion pregnant. Carolyn Deakins, a recovering addict who successful the 1990s utilized drugs, drank and worked arsenic a prostitute with Woodard, testified Woodard showed nary attraction for the coming babe and utilized each her resources to bargain drugs and alcohol.

Danielle Woodard, Cruz’s sister, likewise testified her parent abused drugs and intoxicant passim their childhood, creating a hostile situation for the children.

“She had an addiction. She ever enactment that first, earlier me, oregon him, oregon Zach (Cruz), oregon anybody,” she said.

Brenda Woodard, who died past year, gave up Cruz for adoption erstwhile helium was calved successful 1998.

From an aboriginal age, Cruz had developmental delays and affectional and behavioral issues connected to fetal intoxicant spectrum disorder, the defence argued. Several defence witnesses, including 2 adept doctors, disagreed connected his nonstop diagnosis but said it was related to his mother’s intoxicant usage during pregnancy, noting that his parent really admitted to intoxicant usage connected his commencement records.

“I person never, ever, successful my beingness seen an idiosyncratic who has been affected by prenatal vulnerability to intoxicant successful which determination is documentation, and I deliberation beauteous darn bully documentation of intoxicant exposure,” testified Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones, a starring dependable successful alcohol-related neurological disorder. “I cognize I person ne'er seen truthful overmuch intoxicant consumed by a large woman.”

In closing arguments, the defence said helium was “doomed from the womb” due to the fact that of his mother’s actions.

“There is nary clip successful our beingness erstwhile we are much susceptible to the volition and the whim of different quality being than erstwhile we are increasing and processing successful the womb,” McNeill said.

Prosecutors had asked the assemblage to condemnation the gunman to death, arguing Cruz’s determination to transportation retired the shooting was not lone particularly heinous oregon cruel, but premeditated and calculated and not, arsenic the defence contended, related to immoderate neurological oregon intelligence deficits.

In a decease punishment trial, each of the jurors are “death qualified,” meaning they indispensable beryllium unfastened to imposing the decease punishment successful bid to service connected the jury. This means radical wholly opposed to the decease punishment cannot serve.

Even so, overmuch of the defense’s arguments tried to entreaty to the jury’s motivation qualms with the decease penalty.

The defence argued that a condemnation of beingness successful situation without parole is capable to support the public. They besides argued that Cruz is nether the attraction of a scientist and psychiatrist, was compliant with his medications and had the quality to win successful a structured and supervised situation similar prison, according to the assemblage instructions.

“And successful a civilized humane society, bash we termination encephalon damaged, mentally ill, breached people?” McNeill asked Tuesday. “Do we? I anticipation not.”

In closing arguments, McNeill said that the prosecution was trying to marque the jurors aggravated and affectional by playing horrific video and audio of the shootings. She alternatively pressed them to instrumentality a breath, unfastened their hearts and minds and marque a motivation determination for mercy.

“In a decease punishment sentencing proceeding, you person to usage your heart, due to the fact that you’re making an individualized motivation decision,” she said.

Indeed, the brother of 1 of the victims told CNN past week that helium did not enactment the decease punishment for Cruz owed to its immorality.

“Logically, it doesn’t travel for maine that we say, ‘Murdering idiosyncratic is this horrible, heinous, awful, unspeakable thing, and successful bid to beryllium that point, we’re going to bash it to idiosyncratic else,’” said Robert Schentrup, whose 16-year-old sister Carmen was among those killed.

“And I understood that if this is thing that I felt that I judge that it needed to use successful my idiosyncratic lawsuit and beyond,” helium said. “I had to look heavy into my values and say, is this thing that connects with it? And if so, unrecorded done that.”