Defense seeks life in prison instead of death for perpetrator of Florida high school massacre

The lawyer for the author of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting in 2018 on Monday, August 22, called on jurors to rule in favor of life in prison rather than the death penalty, arguing that her client was suffering from mental disorders.

Melisa McNeill notably highlighted the difficult childhood of Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, a small town north of Miami, by opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle in Marjory Stoneman High School. Douglas, from whom he had been expelled a year earlier.

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The 23-year-old, who pleaded guilty to the murders in October, was born to a "

" alcoholic and drug addicted mother, according to the lawyer.

His trial now focuses on whether he deserves the death penalty as requested by prosecutors.

If only one juror opposes it, Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to an incompressible sentence of life imprisonment.

Nikolas Cruz 'didn't stop having mental problems'

According to Melisa McNeill, the fact that Nikolas Cruz was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, then was diagnosed at age 3 with antisocial personality disorder and grew up in a broken and abusive home with an adoptive mother depressive and alcoholic, should lead to a reduction in her sentence and make her lean towards life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.

"

," she said.

Nikolas Cruz did not receive the help he needed, while his teachers were aware that he was a danger to himself and others, Melisa McNeill further pleaded.

After his exclusion from high school, Nikolas Cruz “

,” she added.

The twelve holders and ten substitutes constituting the jury at the trial of Nikolas Cruz visited the scene of the carnage in early August, walking through the corridors of the establishment which remained as it was on February 14, 2018. At the request of the prosecutors, this building no It had never reopened and was preserved as it was, with the pools of dried blood, the traces of bullet holes and the things abandoned in haste by the high school students.

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The shooting was the worst school massacre in the United States since the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 26 people died.

Since then, a shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May left 21 people dead, including 19 children.

Nikolas Cruz issued an apology in October.

"

," he said.