A judge dismissed a member of convicted gunman Nikolas Cruz's defense team during a heated exchange following testimony from victims' families of the 2018 Parkland school shooting. #CNN #News
See judge dismiss member of school shooter’s defense team
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When the defense’s boss came up to the podium and dared to say that no one in the room had been through what his lawyers had been through… in a room full of people whose loved ones had been slaughtered by their client.
@Patricia Egipciaco
The defense saved his life
@Aisha bint Abu Bakr He’s already a dead man walking so sure, whatever.
Please explain to me how they attacked (some even say threatened) the lawyer’s families/kids. All I heard was them saying things similar to – you have to explain your actions to your kids, your grandkids will be ashamed of you, our kids are dead and you still have yours, etc. I think they brought them up to insult the lawyers, but never attacked the fam/kids or threatened them directly, so who cares. Bringing them up is not threating them.
As far as the lawyers feelings, the victims families have every right to insult them for the blatant disrespect the lawyers had for the court and families. Badly hiding a middle finger and laughing with the serial killer right in front of the families. Saying no one has endured more than the defense lawyers in this court. Maybe the people with dead kids? Tone deaf af.
@Peter George the lawyers were flipping the bird, laughing, and in general of poor character by looking for sympathy from families of the dead. Unprofessional is one word to describe the defense team. The judge was showing amazing restraint. I will remember the faces of the defense team and wish the nothing good that life brings.
The person with worse pain wins.
So sad. The family members of the victims have patiently waited for their turn to speak. The raw emotion needs to be heard and seen by everyone. These folks are grieving and need comforting.
They want his death. Jail is basically torture in a way – especially isolation, but these folks don’t know or they hurt inside so bad from the shooting.
My condolences to the family of all the families who lost their loved ones
@Aisha bint Abu Bakr 100%
if you want to kill, then you don’t find murder wrong.
@Putin Runs the GOP
Exactly
@Aisha bint Abu Bakr GFY little troll..
@Chase Ackley
Everything I say is true
@Aisha bint Abu Bakr bullshit…
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
She allowed him to talk back, ignore her order at least three times. She threw fuel on his fire. Toss these guys the FIRST time they talk back. NEVER ENGAGE.
We might not agree, and in fact we should not, however, none of us can see into the future. Inmates in a prison have their own sense of justice. I’m betting Cruz isn’t going to have a great time living there, or not living at all.
He will get put in a box alone away from any possible danger. He will live out his days in peace. The jurors that ruled life in prison are crazy and should be ashamed.
Can’t expect much more from Florida.
I say this in total support of the families and young souls involved in this: Speaking only for myself, I would much rather be sentenced to death than life in prison. With death, there is escape. In a maximum-security state prison, there is no escape from the hell that one experiences with every breath.
Prison is way worse than death, I would think. But I get it’s instinct to want death to the murderer.
@6.8mm I agree with everything you said. Although to me, freedom, tranquility, balance, cameraderie, serenity and harmony are (the most?) essential ingredients in life, this guy, here, and people like him would and will probably feel right-at-home in state or federal prison. He should have been given capitol punishment.
I want to say that I particularly appreciate your extreme discretion in regards to this type of sentence.
@Gaby Gabby Go to court and demonstrate that, then we can account for that during sentencing. Oh you can’t? Then it has no place in our courts or governments.
A life sentence can be a death penalty if you want it to be. It would take an exceptionally stupid individual to be unable to figure out a way to bring about their own death, if that is what they truly desire. All it takes is the will to accomplish it.
His parents failed to get him mh. He was neglected by his parents. This would stop if people voted for politicians who pushed for health care including mental health. Add decent education to that list as well and maybe people would not become animals.
It seems like the defense attorney was correct. The family members bringing up the defense attorneys’ children does seem wrong and I have no doubt that the judge would agree if it were directed at her family members, and would end it immediately.
Yeah, a little more backstory here may be helpful. That said, I don’t see invoking a personal comparison as a foul in making an argument here. ONe day one of YOUR kids goes to school and then. . .are gunned down. Thats it. They’re gone. They’re never coming back. Both judges and lawyers feel they’re beyond reproach. I won’t even get into legal errors that are made. They think if you simply point out a mistake, that you are questioning their judgment. Everyone comes down on medical errors. . .I think legal errors are way way worse of a problem in our country. They’re worse than doctors.
The witnesses are not professional lawyers representing a client before a judge. The public defenders _are._ When a judge tells you enough, you shut up or you ask to approach the bench or retire to quarters. You don’t keep arguing your case as if you were on trial.
You’re kind of right but kinda wrong. When their kids were brought up it wasn’t like a threat or anything it was simply like “what if this had happened to your children?” Which is super fair considering the defense attorneys were incredibly disrespectful and unprofessional during victim impact statements. They were laughing with the murderer and at some point flipping the judge off. So the families were justified in being upset with the attorneys. That being said, under normal circumstances, it is absolutely not okay to attack defense attorneys for simply doing their job. A thankless job that somebody has to do.
In principle I’m against capital punishment! I’ll be honest, this trial has me wavering on the issue. However, the cost of the defendant’s life long (and I hope it is for his entire lifetime) incarceration should be met by the manufacturers of the weapons he used to murder those people! Let them foot the bill.
Nope.
The gun did its job.
The operator was wrong
I’ve watched portions of the trial. Cruz’s staring at the families testifying was chilling. He was fascinated. He perked up when those left behind testified and leaned over his chair to better look at them as a a whole, seated on their benches. It’s was absolutely chilling. The only thing that apparently delights him is planning and executing a massacre and then watching the pain he has inflicted on others. Can’t imagine how jury bought defense team — which was sloppy as they fumbled through their notes and raised absurd objections — spin. And the judge called them out repeatedly throughout the trial. The defense attorney who was expunged from the courtroom got what he deserved. You don’t have to believe in the death penalty when you know someone deserves it. And if you don’t get what you deserve, certainly nothing more than a bed and toilet, or psychiatric services for fetal alcohol syndrome, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in solitary confinement. It’s important to watch that portion of interview released on YouTube of the psychiatrist assessing Cruz. His cognitive abilities were exceptional, nothing comparable to FAS, as was his ability to clearly articulate his responses to psychiatrist’s questions. What’s so frightening about Cruz was he could go from a massacre to a mall and buy his favorite beverage, to perfectly acclimate himself and assimilate into an environment. Who would ever think he just committed a massacre? Certainly not those who had just served or interacted with him.
He probably pleasured himself after all of that. Sociopaths are aroused by other’s suffering. His over-zealous “defense team” was over the top disrespectful of the horror these families have been through. They make a mockery of public defenders.
Too painful to watch. I almost lost my niece in that tragedy. I can’t imagine what these parents going through. She still struggles and carries a lot of triggers.
Should he die for what he did?
The defense attorney who was dismissed was not doing his job by bringing the judge’s family into the argument. That was his own misbehavior. The judge was justified in dismissing him from the court. The defense team’s complaints about the testimony from the victims’ families is an issue. Not sure where the jurisdiction should be to decide the matter, but it should be discussed and considered. It’s not an attack on public defenders to insist that they maintain professionalism in the courtroom, or to take corrective action if they don’t.
Lmao he proved himself right, low-key! 😂 as soon as he mentioned HER kids, HE got kicked out lol
.. you missed the point though.
This is what happens when u put the wrong people in positions of power he wasn’t mentally ill when he plotted and carried out that school massacre.
I feel for the victims and their families. But the judge made a mistake:
Atty: Judge, the witnesses should not mention my children.
Judge: I don’t recall any mention of your children.
Atty: If they mentioned your kids, I think you would remember it.
Judge: YOU THREATEN MY CHILDREN!? YOU’RE DISMISSED.
Judge got it wrong.
Hopefully, prison justice will catch up to this guy where he goes.
This tragedy is beyond words.
The defence was rude , disrespectful , those families and friends had to listen to exact details how there loved ones died and I’ve never seen someone flip off the judge , they brought the judges kids that’s sick
There’s justice, then there’s street justice. I suspect/hope he’s going to get schooled on street justice when he gets to prison.