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Jury selection to begin for Florida school shooter

By AP News Staff
Published  April 3, 2022 4:10pm EDT
Associated Press
article

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - OCTOBER 20: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown seated at the defense table as he is in court to plead guilty at the Broward County Courthouse on October 20, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Cruz

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PARKLAND, Fla. - Jury selection for Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz is about to begin after four years of legal maneuvering and pandemic delays. 

When it starts Monday, his attorneys will attempt to find jurors who they think will vote against sentencing him to death for murdering 17 people. 

Cruz killed the 14 students and three staff members on Valentine’s Day 2018 during a seven-minute rampage through a three-story building at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, investigators said. They said he shot victims in the hallways and in classrooms with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Cruz had been expelled from Stoneman Douglas a year earlier after a history of threatening, frightening, unusual and sometimes violent behavior that dated back to preschool.

Perhaps 1,500 or more potential jurors are expected to be screened by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Ultimately, they will select 12 who indicate that they can put aside their knowledge of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and judge the case fairly. 

The 23-year-old Cruz has pleaded guilty to the murders; the jury will decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.