Prosecutors filed a movement Thursday night to interview a juror in Parkland faculty shooter Nikolas Cruz’s death-penalty trial after somebody on the panel known as the state legal professional’s workplace within the wake of the shock verdict to assert that they had been threatened by one other juror.
The jury left victims’ dad and mom shocked and indignant on Thursday once they determined to spare Cruz’s life, as a substitute sending him to life in jail with out parole for killing 17 individuals at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in 2018.
However a juror, referred to in a brand new court docket submitting solely as “Juror X,” put within the name simply after they had been dismissed on Thursday, and requested to talk with Assistant State Lawyer Michael Satz, the trial’s lead prosecutor.
The movement says a juror instructed a help employees member that “she obtained what she perceived to be a menace from a fellow juror whereas within the jury room” throughout deliberations. The movement says the state legal professional’s workplace didn’t return the juror’s name, however as a substitute filed a discover to the court docket.
No different particulars in regards to the menace had been included within the movement; a listening to for the movement is scheduled for 1:30 pm Friday.
Individually, a letter penned to Choose Elizabeth Scherer was added to the general public report late Thursday, offering additional perception into the “tense” deliberations.
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That letter, penned by one of many three jurors who voted for a life sentence (an unanimous choice was wanted for Cruz to be executed), says she was initially the lone holdout towards the demise penalty. She additionally claims she was wrongly accused by different jurors of claiming she’d made up her thoughts to vote towards the demise penalty even earlier than the trial started.
“This allegation is unfaithful and I maintained my oath to the court docket that I’d be honest and unbiased,” the letter says. “The deliberations had been very tense and a few jurors grew to become extraordinarily sad as soon as I discussed that I’d vote for all times.”
Two jurors had been named within the letter—its writer and a separate juror who she says overhead different jurors accusing her of bias—however The Every day Beast is just not naming both with out their permission.
A number of the letter’s particulars corroborate what the jury foreman, Benjamin Thomas, instructed CBS Miami after Thursday’s trial. He mentioned that there was only one staunch holdout who mentioned she’d by no means vote to execute Cruz as a result of she believed him to be mentally unwell, and that two others ended up becoming a member of the lady in voting “no” to execution on Thursday.
It’s unclear whether or not the jurors concerned within the prosecutors’ movement are the identical jurors who had been named within the letter.
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