School shooter’s jury selection enters final stretch

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The final phase of jury selection in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz is underway. It began Wednesday with prosecutors and defense attorneys asking candidates about their job histories, opinions on law enforcement and racial minorities, whether they own guns and if they could handle viewing gruesome crime scene photos. The final 83 candidates who remain from the 1,800 who began the process on April 4 are being brought back to Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer’s courtroom in four groups over two days. The 12 eventually selected will decide whether the 23-year-old Cruz is sentenced to die or to life in prison for murdering 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High four years ago.