JURY RECOMMENDS LIFE FOR NICOLAS CRUZ

In a shocking verdict the jury in the Parkland school shooting case did not unanimously recommend death for Nicholas Cruz in each of the 17 counts. 

In 17 verdicts, the jury found over and over again the existence of aggravating factors, and the existence of some mitigating factors and that the aggravating factors DID NOT outweigh the mitigating factors and they did not recommend the death penalty in any of the counts. 

Take from this what you may, but here is what we see: 

There will be calls by politicians to allow judges to override jury recommendations for life. 

There will be calls by politicians to go back to a less than unanimous requirement for a sentence of a death. 

There will be calls by politicians to have people who are convicted of first degree murder to be automatically sentenced to death, with the defense required to rebut the presumption of death. 

Put another way, we live in a society that reacts to public cases. The dozens of pedestrian death penalty cases where the defendant is sentenced to death are not reported. But when there is one outlier case in a public setting, politicians will act and will set policy not by reason and deliberation, but by public outrage. 

This will be very bad tidings for the defense in death penalty cases for at least the next five years. 

Other than life in prison for Cruz, nothing good will come of this. Of that you can be sure. 

This is just a tragedy compounded on a tragedy.  

NORTH OF THE BORDER - NIKOLAS CRUZ TRIAL .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

NORTH OF THE BORDER ... JUDGE ELIZABETH SCHERER LOSES IT, DRESSES DOWN DEFENSE COUNSEL .....

So, my fellow criminal defense lawyers. Have you ever been dressed down the way Judge Liz Scherer jumped down the throat of APD Melisa McNeill, lead counsel for Nikolas Cruz? The incident happened yesterday in a Broward courtroom when the defense surprised everyone by announcing that they were resting their case. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, the defense had called a total of 26 witnesses to the stand. But they had been telling the State, and Judge Scherer all along, that they expected to call upwards of 80 witnesses to testify.

On the link below, from NBC6 Miami, watch the blow by blow action. It includes what can only be described as a second grade cat-fight between the Judge and the defense attorney:

MM: "Judge, you're insulting me on the record in front of my client ..."

Judge Scherer: "You've been insulting me the entire trial ..."

Then share with us your best stories of when you were scolded by a judge the way Scherer scolded McNeill.  

Bonus: Name the Judge and the attorney (without using Google) that squared off in the courtroom during a sexual battery trial, when the defense attorney, cross-examining the victim said this:

The attorney slammed two quarters on the witness stand and said, “You’ll dance nude for 50 cents. What would you do for a dollar?”.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com