FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – In 2020, Broward prosecutor Michael Satz announced that he would not seek re-election as Broward State Attorney, a position he held for 43 years.
There was a case that he wanted to try personally that was going to take all of his time, energy and focus. That case would be serving as the lead prosecutor seeking the death penalty for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
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It was when Satz was serving as Broward State Attorney in 2018 that he filed a notice of his intent to seek the death penalty for Cruz.
Satz hasn’t changed his position throughout. After filing the intent, he said this: “This certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for. This was a highly calculated and premeditated murder of 17 people and the attempted murder of everyone in that school.”
His closing arguments Tuesday echoed the same message.
When Satz announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election, he also said he planned to retire after prosecuting the Cruz case. As Broward State Attorney for more than four decades he was first appointed to the 17th Judicial Circuit position in 1976.
It remains to be seen if the 80-year-old will rest his case or if he’ll continue.
Satz has sought the death penalty previously and has been successful.
Davie Waffle House killer Gerhard “Chip” Hojan was sentenced to death in 2018. He was originally sentenced to death in 2003 but that sentence was overturned. Hojan was convicted of killing workers Willie Absolu and Christina Delarosa inside the freezer of the Davie restaurant in March of 2002.
Robert Lavern Henry, who was accused of beating two of his co-workers with a hammer and setting them on fire at the Cloth World fabric store in Deerfield Beach died by lethal injection in 2014.