NIKOLAS CRUZ

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed making child rapists eligible for the death penalty and reducing the number of jurors required to dole out capital punishment.

Tamara Curtis, one of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz's lawyers, is facing an investigation by the Florida Bar after she was seen flipping off cameras.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz has been formally sentenced to life in prison without parole. Before Cruz was sentenced, parents and other relatives of Cruz's victims spent two days telling him of their anger and hate toward him. (Nov. 2)

Families of victims who were killed in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school confronted shooter Nikolas Cruz for the last time.

Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via GettyIn the final hours of the two-day sentencing hearing for Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the family members of some of his victims fiercely confronted not only him, but also his defense team.Cruz’s attorneys locked horns with Judge Elizabeth Scherer frequently before, during, and after a nearly four-week death penalty trial, crescendoing in an explosive exchange on Tuesday that saw

The gunman was given life in prison on Wednesday, after two days of victim statements from anguished families and survivors.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz received multiples life sentences in prison from a judge after a jury declined to recommend the death penalty.

Nikolas Cruz received 17 consecutive life terms for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced Nikolas Cruz to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

After a jury recommended the sentence, the judge could not change it. But she did allow victims and families to speak directly to Nikolas Cruz for the first time to express their anger and grief.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz has been formally sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Families of the 17 children and staff members that Nikolas Cruz murdered at a Parkland school have concluded their first day of confronting him.

Relatives of those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 angrily confronted the gunman at a sentencing hearing. They also expressed outrage at the jury's verdict.

Families of the 17 children and staff members Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered have concluded their first day of confronting him in court.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison this week, but not before the families of the 17 people he murdered get the chance to tell him what they think.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison this week — but not before the families of the 17 people he murdered get the chance to tell him what they think. A two-day hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday that will conclude with Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer formally sentencing Cruz for his Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Because the jury at his penalty trial could not unanimously agree that the 24-year-old deserved a death sentence, Scherer can only sentence the former Stoneman Douglas student to life without parole — an outcome most of the families criticized.

The death-sentence trial of the Parkland shooter was an exercise in finding explanations where none existed.

Had Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz been sent to Florida’s Death Row, his daily life while awaiting execution would not have been easy. But he would have enjoyed certain comforts: his own cell, meals delivered three times a day, clean clothes and towels brought to him, and no requirement to work.

Until 2016, Florida law allowed trial judges to impose a death sentence if a majority of the jurors agreed. But now, anything less than 12-0 means an automatic sentence of life without parole.

The life sentence about to be imposed on Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz could bring changes to the state's death penalty law.

Prosecutor Carolyn McCann said during a brief hearing that they are not trying to invalidate Thursday's jury vote.

The jury foreman said the jurors were divided.

One of the jurors who rejected the death penalty and voted for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz to have life in prison wrote a letter to the judge.

Prosecutors in the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are calling for an investigation after a juror said she felt threatened by another member of the jury during deliberations.

Prosecutors in the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are calling for an investigation after a juror said she felt threatened by another member of the jury during deliberations that ended with a life sentence for Cruz.

Editor’s note: Daily coverage of the Parkland trial is being provided to all readers as a public service. The deliberation room where 12 jurors decided the fate of confessed mass shooter Nikolas Cruz may have been a crime scene itself — a juror says she was threatened during deliberations, and prosecutors want the claim investigated. According to a motion filed late Thursday, prosecutors want ...

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he was “very disappointed” after a jury rejected the death penalty and recommended that Nikolas Cruz serve life in prison for murdering 17 people in 2018 at a Parkland High School.

"That you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty? What do we have the death penalty for? What's the purpose of it?" Alhadeff said, adding that he believed the jurors set a precedent today that could affect future mass killings.

Thomas Benjamin told CBS Miami three jurors voted against the death penalty for the gunman, who was convicted of killing 17 people in 2018.

The sentence caps an emotional three-month trial in which victim relatives and survivors recounted the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre in painful detail.

Fourteen students and three staff members were killed in the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day in 2018. Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder.

He doesn’t deserve to die. At least, not for the murder of 15-year-old Luke Hoyer or of 14-year-old Martin Duque, a Broward jury decided Thursday after deliberating seven hours. Or for Gina Montalto, 14; Alex Schachter, 14; Alaina Petty, 14; Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Helena Ramsay, 17; Chris Hixon, 49; Carmen Schentrup, 16; Aaron Feis, 37; Scott Beigel, 35; Meadow Pollack, 18; ...

A jury reached a verdict on Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to murdering 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gunman pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others.

The jurors who will decide whether Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is sentenced to death or life without parole have begun their deliberations.

Closing arguments were Tuesday in the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Jurors now will decide if he gets a death sentence or life in prison. Cruz pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder in the 2018 attack that left 17 dead. (Oct. 11)

The lead prosecutor and attorney for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have made their closing arguments over whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

The lead prosecutor of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz made his final push Tuesday to persuade jurors to sentence him to death, telling them during his closing argument that the 2018 attack that killed 17 people was cold, calculated and meticulously planned and deserving of execution. Mike Satz said Cruz “was hunting his victims” as he stalked a three-story classroom building at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for seven minutes, firing into some victims at close range and returning to some wounded victims as they lay helpless “to finish them off." “It is said that what one writes and says is a window into their soul,” Satz said as the three-month trial neared its conclusion.

The jury will likely decide Cruz's fate this week. For the 24-year-old to get a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous on at least one victim.

Prosecutors played a video at the trial of Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz of Cruz describing the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool in detail.

Nikolas Cruz will soon learn if he'll face the death penalty or life in prison for killing 17 people at a Florida high school in 2018.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz may have talked himself into a death sentence.

It's possible Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz talked himself into a death sentence. Prosecutors played video last week at Cruz's penalty trial of jailhouse interviews he did this year with two of their mental health experts. In frank and sometimes graphic detail, he answered their questions about his massacre of 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 — his planning, his motivation, the shootings.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz calmly told a psychologist he picked Valentine’s Day for his massacre to ruin the holiday for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students forever.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz calmly told a psychologist why he picked Valentine’s Day to massacre 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago: Because no one loved him, he wanted to ruin the holiday forever for anyone associated with the school. Prosecutors began wrapping up their rebuttal case Thursday by playing that video clip from jailhouse interviews Cruz did with their psychologist hoping it bolsters their contention that he wasn’t driven to kill by a mental disorder he couldn’t control, but planned his attack and chose to carry it out. Cruz’s attorneys have contended throughout the trial that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, causing brain dysfunctions that led to lifelong episodes of bizarre, erratic and sometimes violent conduct that culminated with the shootings.

Eleven people working for one of the nation's leading turkey producers have been charged with animal cruelty in Pennsylvania after state police said they were caught on video kicking, stomping and beating turkeys at several farms.

Prosecutors trying to sentence Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are trying to show he is faking having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Prosecutors spent several hours Tuesday trying to prove Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz purposely did poorly on tests administered to see if he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the primary reason his attorneys say he murdered 17 people four years ago. During tests administered earlier this year by experts his attorneys hired, Cruz averaged 22 taps in 10 seconds. Prosecution neuropsychologist Robert Denney said the average male scores 51 on that test and a 22 would be a score only someone with a severe brain injury that causes physical stiffness would tally.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz sympathizes with Nazis and drew swastikas on the magazine found in the AR-15-style rifle he used in the 2018 massacre of 17 people.

Prosecutors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began their rebuttal of the defense case Tuesday by showing the jury swastikas he drew on a gun magazine and his boots, his online racism and misogyny and his online searches for child pornography. Prosecutors are trying to show that Cruz's murder of 17 people at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago was driven by antisocial personality disorder — commonly known as being a sociopath — and not fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as the defense contends. Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last October to the Feb. 14, 2018, murders — the trial is only to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole.

A jury will decide whether Nikolas Cruz lives or dies for killing 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. Not all victims' relatives are convinced the death penalty will bring them a sense of justice.

Prosecutors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are about to begin their rebuttal case.

A seven-man, five-woman jury will decide whether Nikolas Cruz is sentenced to death or life without parole.

Prosecutors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are about to begin their rebuttal case.

The motion, filed on Friday, alleged that the judge revealed longstanding animosity toward the defense that threatened the fairness of the trial.

The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has rejected a motion by his attorneys that she step down.

The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz refused to step down Monday, rejecting a motion by his attorneys who accused her of being biased against their client and prejudicing the jurors who will decide if he should die for murdering 17 people four years ago. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the motion, saying only it was legally insufficient. Scherer last week chewed out lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team outside the jury's presence, accusing them of being “unprofessional” when they unexpectedly rested their case after only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they had told her and prosecutors they intended to testify had been called.

Defense lawyers for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz want the judge to recuse herself from the case after she chastised the defense team last week in court.

Earlier this week, the judge accused defense attorneys of a lack of professionalism after they rested their case earlier than expected.

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have asked for the judge in his murder case to remove herself two days after she scolded them when they abruptly rested their case.

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz asked for the judge in his murder case to remove herself on Friday, two days after she scolded them when they abruptly rested their case after calling only a fraction of their expected witnesses. The Broward Public Defender’s Office said in a motion that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer held a longstanding animosity toward lead defense lawyer Melisa McNeill. The motion cited Florida's Judicial Code of Conduct that states a judge shall disqualify himself or herself if the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party’s lawyer.

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz's defense team abruptly rested their case Tuesday with no advance warning, eliciting a spirited scolding from the judge for wasting the court's time.

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have suddenly and surprisingly rested their case, leading to a heated exchange after the judge accused them of a lack of professionalism.

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have suddenly and surprisingly rested their case, leading to a shouting match after the judge accused them of a lack of professionalism.

One of the nation's leading researchers on the effects of fetal alcohol abuse says the birth mother of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz drank more in pregnancy than any woman he has documented.

A neuropsychologist says Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz suffered brain damage when his birth mother drank during pregnancy.

Testimony at the trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz shows that chaos reigned in the home he shared with his widowed mother and brother.

A judge ruled that the jury for school shooter Nikolas Cruz can see the swastikas he drew on class assignments.

Four years before Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people at a Florida high school, therapists at another school wrote a letter to his psychiatrist saying he was fixated on guns and dreamed of killing others and being covered in blood.

A psychologist who treated Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz when he was 8 years old testified that Cruz was a “peculiar child” who had many behavioral and developmental issues.

A preschool administrator and a neighbor both say that as a toddler, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was intellectually and physically behind other children.

The lead attorney for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz told the jury in his penalty trial Monday they have witnessed “things that will haunt them for the rest of their lives,” but they now need to learn what led him to massacre of 17 people four years ago before they can decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole.

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are about to present their case for why they believe he should be sentenced to life in prison and not death.

The judge in penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will soon decide whether the jury will be told about some brain exams his lawyers had conducted on him.

The prosecutor seeking to sentence Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz to death let the facts speak for themselves as he presented his case over the last three weeks.

Jurors in the trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have toured the still-bloodstained building where he murdered 17 people four years ago.

Jurors in the trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz heard a third day of statements from families of his 17 victims.

A grieving father erupted in anger as he told jurors about the daughter school shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered along with 16 others four years ago.

Few Americans outside law enforcement ever see the most graphic videos or photos from the nation’s worst mass shootings.

Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz have now seen the AR-15 rifle he used to murder 17 people.

Florida law enforcement officers have told a jury about the horror they found inside a high school after 17 people were massacred there four years ago.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist have held their first and only debate before the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

A video played at the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz shows him walking calmly into a sandwich shop just minutes after he murdered 17 people.

Eyewitnesses to the killings of 17 people by Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are giving heart-wrenching testimony at his penalty trial.

Jurors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are being shown graphic video of him murdering 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The gunman who attacked the high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 has returned to court for the penalty phase of his case.

A prosecutor says the gunman who attacked the high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 should be executed.

The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history ever to make it to trial is finally about to go before a jury.

The 12 jurors chosen to decide whether Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is executed will be exposed to horrific images and emotional testimony, but must deal with any mental anguish alone.

A jury of seven men and five women have been sworn in for the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.

A jury of seven men and five women has been chosen to decide whether Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be sentenced to death or get life in prison for the 2018 attack.

The final phase of jury selection in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is underway.

The public defenders representing Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz tried to withdraw from his death penalty trial after the judge ordered them to move forward with jury selection even though one member of their five-member team has COVID-19.

The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18 when authorities say they bought the weapons used in the attacks.

The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18 when authorities say they bought the weapons used in the attacks.

The 18-year-old man who slaughtered 19 children and two teachers in Texas left a digital trail that hinted at what was to come.

The mass shooting at a Texas elementary school has invaded jury selection at the penalty trial of Florida’s campus killer.

The judge presiding over Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz's death penalty trial was assigned the case despite never having overseen a major trial.

The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has reversed herself on a major decision, leaving lawyers on both sides confused.