WATCH LIVE: Families get final say before Parkland shooter is sentenced – November 1



A two-day hearing is scheduled to begin Tuesday that will conclude with Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer formally sentencing Nikolas Cruz for the 2018 massacre at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Because the jury at his penalty trial could not unanimously agree that the 24-year-old deserved a death sentence, Scherer can only sentence Cruz to life without parole. Each family of the 14 students and three staff members Cruz murdered will be allowed to speak, as will the 17 people he wounded. #Parkland #NikolasCruz

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31 thoughts on “WATCH LIVE: Families get final say before Parkland shooter is sentenced – November 1”

  1. The poem that she reads in court is the exact poem that my 26-year-old daughter’s best friend sent me after the brutal murder of my beautiful daughter shot five times in front of her three babies which included a kidney gardener a toddler and a newborn three little girls she said mommy I’m gonna have three little girls one day just like you and I’ll be down that’s what the Lord gave her I just don’t understand why the Lord allowed her to be taken away from those three little precious girls I also give glory to God that he allowed her to give birth to those precious little girls And up for a small moment she got to know the Joyce in the bliss of motherhood and I have three beautiful granddaughters to love on in her stand and stand in the gap for this precious young lady that she should still be here with us when tomorrow starts without me it’s called prayers from heaven it broke my heart to hear her read it I can’t tell you how many times I’ve posted this prayer on Facebook

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  2. I LOVE how some of the victims families shamed the entire defense team for supporting that monster that ended 17 innocent lives. The defense team was very unprofessional the entire trial.

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  3. Linda Cruz did help that monster nonstop over and over since a toddler with doctors, those lawyers outright lied to the jurors in the closing, they deserved the harsh words from the victims families…the true victims. Lying about facts in closing to the jury was going beyond duty here.
    Criminals have way too many rights now it is horrifying. Defence lawyers have a job to do it's understood but the law has to draw a line when it comes to who and what a victim really is.

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  4. As I can tell from most of the comments, this will not be a popular opinion. So, if you can't handle another point of view on this matter, please spare yourself the grief. Nikolas Cruz is no Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Edmund Kemper, Dennis Radar, William Bonin, Gary Ridgeway or John Wayne Gacy, or a myriad of other serial killers, granted he is a mass murderer by definition. He is no monster. His killing wasn't intimate, it was done with a gun, not with a knife or by strangulation. This matters to psychologists. By "intimate" I mean he wasn't that close to his victims, he didn't relish in their pain and agony as most true "monsters" do. He didn't look into their eyes inches away from their face and enjoy the pain he was inflicting, this is what "monsters" do. Out of all those serial killers, Dennis Radar, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gary Ridgway, and Edmund Kemper did not receive the death penalty. The parents did not go rabid over it. Granted this is Florida and people have different expectations, but damn! This judge looks young and inexperienced, she acted as if she has no clue about the existence of the serial killers I mentioned. When David Wheeler, made his comment. It was brilliant! She gave the reaction everyone expected! All the defense attorneys were like, yes that is exactly what we sat through, and that is exactly what we wanted to do, now judge you know exactly how we felt. Act a fool! Gordon Weekes so well and composed, I know exactly how he became a well-known attorney.

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  5. Joakim Oliver he is the KING! 👑I am only four minutes in and Joachim’s mother burned the court to the ground 🔥 oh boy the defense team with their ugly faces and bad hair will NEVER never forget Joaquin’s mothers words directed (singularly loved it) will haunt those bad people. She shoved it rite up their a$$es 🥳 “oh ya” her little gestures “and you and you and you” degraded them as they should be!!!
    PLUS she addresses them by name with hatred, disdain and putrid disgust and making them all accountable for their part in this messed up verdict. Her blood boiled right through their veins deservingly so-that’s how impactful her statement was! She is now my hero!! Loved her “u listening” while sticking her finger Practically up all of their noses!! (yes!)
    This mom commanded the room and proved What a living joke they had to sit through, we had to listen to-the monster just bored while drawing in court with all his little Sketchy attorneys treating him like a poor little kid. Those defense attorneys Will be the most hated people on earth until the day they die! Score!!

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  6. The judge interrupted the defense lawyer as she was saying they were given this case as public defenders. Were they supposed to not put on their best work? They wanted to save his life and I believe they have been unfairly treated by the families and the judge.
    Their point about the families being allowed to attack the jurors was valid too. If they are going to be attacked no one is going to want to sit on a jury. And nobodies children should have been involved. The judge has lost control.

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  7. what's ironic is if he killed himself before the trial I bet they all would be saying he took the easy way out and deserved to rot in prison instead. Interesting irony we see in lots of cases, they don't care what your punishment is, they just want it to be something you don't want. 2:10:15 is a clear example of this

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  8. Prosecution is salty the judge is a complete joke for allowing families to trash the defense and their kids yet when they talk about her kids she flips out lmao. Which is uncalled for, childish, and just dumb. They did their job, get over it. That's the justice system, go live in n.korea if you don't want rights. Who would want to be juror or a public defender after this. Direct your hatred on the defendant, not the kids of the defense.

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  9. Enough already he's going to serve a full life sentence…let the parents rant ..this has been a circus 🎪 hopefully this will be the last of this it's a joke now

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  10. How are they going to do this at our trial? The murderers who are still living at Guantánamo Bay helped kill 2,776 people and injured over 6,000. It would take over a year to talk to them, even if you made a 1-sentence statement, and people have voiced outrage about executing them, too.
    As if killing almost 3,000 people were such a "ridiculous impetus" for wanting capital punishment. Like any REASONABLE PERSON would automatically presume we're "inciting violence" if we show any anger about it.
    I hate to inform you that most of them were holding back anger. Either that or I'm way more upset about what happened than I knew & he was not my child. I lost my child too & to this day I can find no way to describe the unique quality and intensity of the agony it has created from the inside out – and she died from an unknown sickness, not someone's aimless decision where she happened to cross his path – and died for the misfortune.
    They were in the RIGHT place. They were where they were supposed to be, doing the right thing.
    HE was in the WRONG place, DOING the wrong thing.

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  11. The defense lawyers should be fired for giving this demonic animal, Nickolas Cruz, life in prison!!

    Now the rest of the families of the 17 victims who lost their lives by him, will speak their anger and frustration to him on this day, before he gets tormented for the rest of his life, in prison!!

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  12. I am stunned by the words of the families of the victims. I can understand their immense pain but beyond criticizing the defense lawyers but it's incredible!!! if Hitler would have been captured alive he would have had the right to a trial worthy of his name at Nuremberg!!! blame the lawyers for defending their defendants but it's really incredible!!! I can guarantee you if it happened in an Assize Court in France The Advocate General and the judge would have stopped the trial immediately!! that they are angry with the verdict I can understand but to attack the lawyers but it is simply incredible!!

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  13. Don't get me wrong, I have been crying for 2 hours now from watching this. Having said that , has anyone noticed the neurological appearing tics the shaved head bailiff has been displaying this whole time? I mean it could be that maybe he suffers from turettes, I have seen videos of people who suffer from turettes, have self induced tics as a way to keep themselves from being audible. I just wanted to point it out in case someone sees this , and maybe he has a condition he doesn't know about. That's all. Some woman, a nurse, emailed a guy who had a renovation show on HGTV along side his wife, and told him she believed he had some medical condition about the neck/throat if I remember correctly, I just wanted to do the same

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  14. Being a defense attorney seems to be a thankless job. Everyone hates you even though you’re doing your job. In this case, I really feel like it illustrates the idea that someone who needs a defense lawyer is already beyond redemption.

    Edit: I didn’t see all the trial but enough to see the raw pain the parents and family feel. I don’t envy the defense team at all. Or any defense team, for that matter.

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  15. Another observation: Anne Ramsay’s statement was powerful. That really hit home for me. She indicted not only Cruz, but everyone who failed her daughter and the family. It takes systems to fail people this way. And on that day almost 5 years ago, the system failed the Ramsays (and the other families) in a cruel way.

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  16. Proves more so he lied when he said he wanted the families to decide what Happened. If that was the case he would have told his defence he wants death sentence that's what they wanted…..he's sly.caniving and definition of evil should have his face next to it in dictionary

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  17. I watched these statements separately last week. My first time watching the entire proceedings with breaks.
    What the separate videos don’t show is the support the victims families are showing to one another.
    After the first break, I saw Mr Schuleman (Beigels father) go up and (deeply) hug several people including Hixons widow, mother, and son. Then Mrs Beigel did the same thing.

    The separate videos didn’t show Megan Petty need a minute to compose herself after she was called the first time. As soon as she sat back down, there was Max Schachter and Mrs Alhadeff rubbing her shoulder, Mrs Hixon whispering something to her. What beautiful people and what a tragedy they had to be brought together in this situation.

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  18. I know this is not a competition. But I watched these several times so I have opinions now. I loved the Poem from Alyssa’s relative. That is special and I feel like the killer was listening too.
    My favorite speeches were Alyssa’s Grandpa, her other grandmother that was represented by a family spokesperson, Scots Father, Gina’s brother, Joaquin’s Father,

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