Tablet for emails, visitors: What's next for Nikolas Cruz now that he has avoided death penalty
PARKLAND, FLORIDA: Nikolas Cruz, 24, who admitted to killing 17 people in Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Cruz avoided the dealth penalty, infuriating many of the victims' family members who believe justice has not been served. A lot about how Cruz's life in prison would look like will possibly be sorted out once he is formally sentenced early November.
Cruz, then 19, shot dead 14 students and three staff members at his former school Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida on February 14, 2018. He pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder last fall in connection with the shooting. Here is what could come next for Cruz:
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Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer is expected to formally sentence Cruz on November 1. However, Florida law states the judge cannot depart from the jury’s recommendation of life in prison. Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes said in a recent press conference that the jury’s recommendation was final, adding, “Victims have a constitutional right to be heard at every stage of the proceeding.”
“The court is going to respect that right and give them an opportunity to be heard. And we appreciate that, and we recognize that, and that should be followed,” Weekes said, according to CNN. “However, we have to also recognize the jurors in the case sat through a number of days of very, very difficult, traumatic evidence, and they heard it all, and they weighed it all, and they rendered a verdict. We have to respect that.” If Cruz chooses, he has the right to make a statement in the sentencing.
Cruz has also been sentenced to 25 years in state prison after pleading guilty to attacking a jail officer in November 2018. He has been in jail in Broward County since that year. Weekes has said that Cruz will likely be taken to the South Florida Reception Center. According to Janet Johnson, a Florida criminal defense attorney, Cruz will spend several weeks at the reception center “getting physical examinations, mental health examinations." "They’ll look at his record, they’ll look at the level of crime that he’s convicted of, which is obviously the highest, and they’ll recommend a facility somewhere in the state," Johnson said.
Because Cruz is a high-risk offender, he could placed in a prison with other high-profile or “very dangerous criminals,” Johnson said. “But he wouldn’t be isolated, which of course, is a real threat for him because there may be people who want to do ‘prison justice,’ who didn’t feel that the sentence he got in court was enough."
Cruz's defense team has also hinted at dangers he might face inside prison. Lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill said during her closing arguments in the death penalty trial that Cruz will “wait to die” in a facility, “Either by natural causes or whatever else could possibly happen to him while he’s in prison.”
In prison, Cruz will likely be allowed to receive mails and see visitors. He might also have a tablet to be able to email and text others, Johnson said. The department of corrections website said that the inmates' families were allowed to communicate through “interactive, stationary kiosks available in general population housing units, as well as tablets.” These services are reportedly available across all major correctional institutions in Florida.
Cruz's defense team earlier said that he was a “brain-damaged, mentally ill” individual who suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder among other conditions. He will receive a psychiatric examination upon arriving at the reception center, which will help determine his diagnisis and medicines he would be required to take. It is unclear exactly what kind of mental health treatment Cruz may receive in prison.