He rigorously ready his gun, put it in a bag, and to keep away from arousing suspicion, advised the Uber driver who took him to Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty that he was headed to music class. He wore a standard faculty polo shirt so he might mix into the group of scholars fleeing the scene.
His crimes have been cruel. He killed some he’d already wounded. “I needed to kill as many individuals as I might,” he mentioned. He advised the psychiatrist he stopped solely when he couldn’t discover anybody left to kill.
Most mass shooters die in a hail of police bullets or by suicide. However not Mr. Cruz. In jail, he spoke repeatedly by cellphone to a household buddy. Phone logs summarize the substance of those conversations. No less than twice, Mr. Cruz advised the buddy that he would put on a masks throughout his dying penalty trial in order that the jury wouldn’t see him chuckle or smile.
In these calls Mr. Cruz confirmed frequent concern together with his personal well being. He seemed ahead, he mentioned, to a greater weight-reduction plan in jail, with extra greens and fewer carbs. Life in jail will permit him to correspond together with his associates, maybe together with a pen pal whom he mentioned he needed to marry. He’ll have recreation time, be capable to play sports activities and perhaps even watch his favourite groups compete on TV.
Opponents of capital punishment typically declare that life in jail is worse than dying, and subsequently proportional to the crime. As an alternative of placing him out of his distress, they insist, hold him alive so he’ll actually undergo.
Three a long time of documenting day by day life on dying rows and inside most safety prisons, together with Florida’s, have taught me the immoral perversity of at present’s jail administration. As I’ve witnessed, probably the most vicious criminals typically have the very best jobs, finest hustles and best lives. In brief, those that deserve it most frequently undergo least. Mr. Cruz’s hopes, expectations and goals for his personal future stay reasonable.
Distinction this with the lives his victims won’t ever get to stay. For retributivists looking for justice among the many worst of the worst, the nice query goes past “Reside or die?” How ought to these like Mr. Cruz stay till they die?
