Attorneys select 12 jurors to decide if Parkland school shooter should get death

Jury selection in the Parkland school shooter’s death penalty trial continued Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale. Attorneys selected 12 jurors out of a pool of 53 Broward County residents.

Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer also wants eight alternates to be ready to replace them if anything goes wrong. The jurors selected will have to decide if Nikolas Cruz should be executed for his crimes.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in October. He was 19 when he used an AR-15 rifle to shoot at students and teachers on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Jury selection began on April 4. More than 1,500 Broward County residents on jury duty answered Scherer’s questions about hardships that would keep them from serving as jurors for about four months. Those who didn’t have any hardships returned to face attorneys’ one-on-one questions on their views of the death penalty.

If the 12 jurors don’t agree on the death penalty, Scherer will only have the option to sentence Cruz to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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