FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The case of the Parkland school shooter appeared to be headed toward a mistrial Tuesday after defense lawyers balked at how the judge handled a group of jurors who declared they could not follow the law on the case.
A mistrial at this stage of proceedings would be a bump in the road — two days of jury pre-selection would be scrapped, but lawyers would be able to start from scratch as early as Wednesday morning.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer gave defense lawyers until Wednesday morning to decide whether to move for a mistrial after they protested her dismissal of 11 potential jurors who said they couldn’t follow the law in deciding whether to give the killer the death penalty.
The judge later announced plans to recall them to question them about whether they could handle the time commitment involved in the case, a plan that raised eyebrows among legal experts.
The defense asked for 24 hours to consider whether to make such a motion. The judge offered five or 10 minutes, leading to a testy exchange between defense lawyers and judge. They were ultimately given until Wednesday morning to decide whether to move for a mistrial.
Nikolas Cruz, who has already pleaded guilty to murdering 17 people and wounding 17 others, faces the death penalty. The case is expected to take up to six months.
Bringing back jurors who have previously been dismissed raises a number of legal problems, experts said Tuesday. For one thing, dismissed jurors are free to discuss the case. By the time they are told to return, the potential jurors could already have disqualified themselves just by having conversations with their friends and loved ones about their day in court.
“Once I am dismissed, I’m no longer in the ‘vinire,’” said defense lawyer Bruce Raticoff, a former assistant Public Defender who is not on the case. Vinire is the legal name for the group from which potential jurors will be drawn.
Another issue that surfaced Tuesday was the realization that the first 239 jurors were brought into the courtroom, questioned, screened and dismissed or chosen to move on to the next phase, all without being sworn in.
Scherer did not administer an oath to jurors until the fifth panel entered the courtroom on Tuesday. The error is considered fixable, according to defense lawyers, but additional errors could complicate the trial if it continues.
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