Life for Nikolas Cruz: Why not death penalty?

Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The 12-member jury deliberated the penalty phase of Nikolas Cruz’s trial and was unable to unanimously agree on the death sentence. Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count.

It wasn’t always the case that the jury had to unanimously vote on the death penalty for a defendant.

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Craig Trocino, the director of the Miami Law Innocence Clinic, referred to a U.S. Supreme Court decision. “It used to be a majority rule before that (for the death penalty), say 7 to 5, for death would have done it. But in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court in a case called Hurst v. Florida held that scheme unconstitutional.

Trocino is referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Jan. 12, 2016. The court voted 8 to 1 in favor of Hurst v. Florida, in which the Court struck down as unconstitutional Florida’s capital sentencing statute.

At the time of the opinion, Florida death-penalty law required a jury to make a sentencing recommendation – on which only a bare majority of jurors had to agree – to the judge, who would then later “hold a separate hearing and determine whether sufficient aggravating circumstances existed to justify imposing the death penalty,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In March 2016, the statute was amended to require that jurors unanimously find any aggravating circumstances that the prosecution seeks to prove to make the defendant eligible for the death penalty. The amendment repealed a provision of Florida’s death-penalty law that had permitted judges to override a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence.

While the victims’ families now have some aspect of closure, it may not be expedient that Cruz will be sentenced. Already the state has said they want to present testimony from victims. That will happen on Nov. 1 when the court reconvenes.

Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will issue a formal ruling on Cruz’s sentence. Under Florida law, however, she cannot depart from the jury’s recommendation of life.