Attorneys for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz have argued over the language that will be allowed in the court room during his upcoming trial during a hearing on Zoom Wednesday.
Attorneys for the 22-year-old - who is accused of murdering 17 people at the Florida high school - want prosecutors and witnesses barred from referring to Cruz as 'an animal,' 'a thing,' 'the killer' or in any manner they believe is derogatory during the trial.
Cruz's lead attorney Melisa McNeill also argued Wednesday that prosecutors and their witnesses should be barred from calling the February 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 'the massacre,' 'the schoolhouse slaughter,' 'an execution' or other 'inflammatory' terms at trial.
The assistant public defender told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that Cruz should only be referred to by his name or as 'the defendant' at trial and the shooting should only be referred to as 'the incident,' 'the tragedy,' the 'mass shooting' or other neutral terms.
'We are not making effort, as the state has alleged, to minimize or purify what happened,' defense attorney Melisa McNeill said during the hearing. 'The evidence speaks for itself, and it's not necessary to invite error into the record with these prejudicial references.'
Attorneys for Cruz argued over the language that will be allowed in the court room during his upcoming trial trying to ban terms like 'the killer' and 'the massacre' (pictured at a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, FL July 14, 2021)
Cruz has plead not guilty but his legal team has said that he will plead guilty for a life sentence (pictured at a hearing in Fort Lauderdale, FL July 14, 2021)
Cruz was expelled the year before the shooting for 'fighting over his ex-girlfriend' and made shocking Instagram posts detailing a twisted obsession for guns, violence and hurting animals (pictured Feb. 14, 2018)
McNeil pointed to both the U.S. and Florida supreme courts which have ruled that death penalty cases require stricter standards than normal trials because the verdict and sentence must be beyond reproach and based solely on the law.
'Can those terms be used outside the courtroom? Yes. Everyone has a First Amendment right to refer to Mr. Cruz in any manner they see fit,' McNeill said.
'However, the rules inside a courtroom are different.'
Prosecutor Nicole Chiappone said even Cruz himself has used some of the terms his attorneys want barred. She said he refers to himself in a cellphone video as 'the next school shooter' and, shortly before the killings, recorded himself saying, 'this is the day of my massacre.'
Chiappone said Scherer should not make any pretrial list of barred terms. If someone at trial refers to Cruz or the shootings in a manner his attorneys believe is prejudicial, they can object then and make their argument to strike the wording, she said.
'Referring to this as `an incident´ or `a tragedy´ is insulting. This is far more,' she added. 'Especially when they adequately describe the defendant and what he did, what else do you call an event where somebody goes into a school and kills 17 innocent people? That is a massacre.'
The students sprinted away from the building and gathered at the trees on the other side of the road from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (pictured Feb. 14, 2018)
Linda Beigel Schulman watched the hearing and was upset by the defense's request. She told Local 10 'He is what he is, and he did what he did.
'It was a slaughter to shoot all those people with a weapon of war. He knew what he was doing, he wrote it all out, it was all on his cell phone.'
Schulman's son, Scott, was killed in the shooting. The high school teacher and coach died trying to save students.
Debbie Hixon agreed with Schulman's stance. Her husband, Chris, was also a coach at the school who died trying to stop the massacre.
'The idea that they don't want him to be called a murderer or say it was an execution is outrageous,' she told Local 10.
'He is a murderer, and it was an execution, nothing will change that. I am so angry that we have to be concerned about how he feels or how he is portrayed.'
Cruz has pleaded not guilty, but his attorneys have said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors have rejected that offer.
He previously confessed to the mass shooting during interrogations after being apprehended at the scene.
Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz was captured on interrogation room video sobbing into his brother Zachary's arms after confessing to murdering 17 people (pictured Feb. 14, 2018)
Cruz's attorneys also asked to review testimony given in secret to a statewide grand jury empaneled after the shooting that examined systemic failures in school security, mental health counseling and other programs.
They want to see if anything was said specifically about Cruz during the hearings that could provide some mitigation for the shooting, either in the main trial or during the sentencing phase. They said if they aren't allowed to see the testimony, they want Scherer to review it.
Prosecutors and an attorney for the state said the grand jury testimony discussed problems and issues broadly and not Cruz specifically and should remain sealed.
Scherer said she would rule on the defense motions by Friday. No date has been set for the trial.
A separate October 4 trial date was set on Wednesday for charges set against Cruz for attacking a Broward County jail guard in November 2018, nine months after the shooting.
Security footage from the jail shows Cruz charging at Sgt. Raymond Beltran and initiating the fight. The defense has indicated it will argue that Beltran mistreated Cruz previously and goaded him into the assault.
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