{"id":1620351,"date":"2022-08-23T12:23:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1620351"},"modified":"2022-08-23T12:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T16:23:32","slug":"defense-for-parkland-shooter-begins-arguments-in-fla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defense-for-parkland-shooter-begins-arguments-in-fla\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense for Parkland shooter begins arguments in Fla."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdefense-for-parkland-shooter-begins-arguments-in-fla%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1620351&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2555762\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2555762\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2555762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/cus.jpg\" alt=\"Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown seated at the defense table as he is in court to plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (Amy Beth Bennett\/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2555762\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown seated at the defense table as he is in court to plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (Amy Beth Bennett\/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 9:19 AM PT \u2013 Tuesday, August 23, 2022<\/h5>\n<p>The defense for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz began their case in Florida by asking juror\u2019s to reconsider the death penalty. On Monday, attorneys for Cruz attempted to look into why the 23-year-old murdered 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the defense highlighted his birth mother\u2019s abuse of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy while claiming this contributed to Cruz\u2019s actions. He pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and attempted murder, but his attorneys hope to convince the jury to impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe State of Florida described to you what Nikolas did, the defense will tell you who he is,\u201d stated\u00a0Melisa McNeill, Chief Pubic Defender. \u201cThat\u2019s our job. And for the last four and a half years, we have painstakingly dug into every part of Nikolas\u2019s life. Where he came from, who was around him, who raised him, who carried him in utero, who influenced his life, who shaped and what contributed to that horrible decision that he made.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Cruz\u2019s biological sister, Danielle Woodward, too the stand to attempt to back the claims of the defense by detailing how their mother consumed illicit drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco during her pregnancy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Parkland school shooter&#8217;s sister, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DanielleWoodard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DanielleWoodard<\/a>, testified that her mother smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and consumed illicit drugs while she was pregnant with the defendant. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/53vX3lY7nw\">pic.twitter.com\/53vX3lY7nw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Law&#038;Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LawCrimeNetwork\/status\/1561796807520296960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Over the last three weeks, prosecutors argued that the shooter was \u201ccold, manipulative and deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/will-ny-gov-hochuls-actions-backfire-on-her-reputation\/\">Will NY Gov. Hochul\u2019s Actions Backfire On Her Reputation?<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is shown seated at the defense table as he is in court to plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (Amy &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}