• The defense for Nikolas Cruz asked for a 45-day continuance on Monday morning.
• They said a mental health professional needs time to prepare for a proper evaluation of their client.
• The jury selection process took nearly three months and began with 1,800 candidates.

Prior to the start of the opening remarks on Monday morning, the defence; for Nikolas Cruz requested a 45-day postponement.

They said that in order to properly assess their client; a mental health expert needs time to be ready.

Monday morning was set aside for the start of the penultimate section; of the Parkland school shooter’s sentencing trial.

The time for the opening remarks was 9 a.m.

For the February 14, 2018, killings of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; the jury will determine whether Cruz, 23, will be given the death penalty; or life in prison without the possibility of release.

The jury will only determine Cruz’s sentence because he pled guilty to those killings and 17 counts; of attempted murder in October. Cruz must get the death penalty with no abstentions; if even one votes for life in prison, that will be Cruz’s punishment.

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With 1,800 applicants, the jury selection procedure took place over over three months. The selection was supposed to take roughly a month; but there were frequent setbacks due to illness and other issues.

The three-story classroom building where Cruz systematically roamed the corridors; shooting at anybody in front of him and inside classrooms, will be shown to the jury; during the sentencing hearing. The jury will also be exposed to horrific evidence; including crime scene and autopsy images. It is still bloodstained and bullet-pocked; with Valentine’s Day gifts scattered around, and has not been cleaned since the shooting.

The jury will have a difficult assignment since no American mass shooter who murdered at least 17 people; has ever gone to trial in the United States. Nine more people perished in the shooting assaults or right thereafter; either at the hands of the police or the shooters themselves. The defendant is awaiting trial in connection with the 2019 murder; of 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

About four months are anticipated to pass during the sentence trial.

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