CAPE CORAL, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the jury verdict in the Nikolas Cruz sentencing trial on Friday and called for changes in the law to support victims of crimes.
DeSantis was speaking at an event in hurricane-ravaged Cape Coral, when he spoke out about the verdict.
“There’s still a lot of disappointment from yesterday’s verdict in the Parkland school shooting case to deny the imposition of the death penalty for somebody that massacred so many people in cold blood and cut short so many young and vibrant lives full of potential.”
The governor said he supports an investigation into possible juror misconduct.
Prosecutors filed a motion Thursday asking the court to authorize law enforcement to interview a juror in the Parkland case who called them to say she was threatened by a fellow juror while in the jury room.
“I know that the prosecutors are pursuing some things with the jury, and I think they should do that. I think this is something that, did you have jurors that were just never going to do this no matter what? That’s not the way this system is supposed to work,” said DeSantis.
He also said he will be looking at possible reforms to the law for cases like this.
“This happened before I was even governor. And now, here we are, more than four years later. So that’s not the way I think the justice system should be operating. I think we need to do some reforms to be better serving the victims of crimes and the families of victims of crimes, and not always bend over backwards to try to do everything we need to for the perpetrators of crimes,” said DeSantis.