Prosecutors: School massacre not mitigated by others’ errors

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors say attorneys for a former student accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school should not be allowed to use any failures by his therapists, school officials or campus security guards as mitigating factors during the death penalty phase of his trial. They told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that Nikolas Cruz’s attorneys should not be allowed to argue that failures by any third parties alleviate his responsibility for the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Cruz’s attorneys argued jurors must know about all aspects of Cruz’s life and the shootings if they are asked to decide between a life sentence and the death penalty.