Lawyers for a Florida school gunman have asked a jury to spare him the death penalty, arguing that his “brain was irretrievably broken” owing to a difficult childhood.
Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last year to killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018.
The trial will determine whether he is put to death or jailed for life.
The case is the deadliest mass shooting to reach a jury trial in the US.
On Monday Melisa McNeil, Cruz’s lead lawyer, said her client had been exposed to drugs and alcohol while in his mother’s womb, citing this as a contributing factor to the massacre.
“Because of that, his brain was irretrievably broken, through no fault of his own,” she said, calling him a “damaged person”, and describing his run-ins with school officials and police throughout his childhood in an adopted home.
