In a shocking verdict the jury in the Parkland school shooting case did not unanimously recommend death for Nicholas Cruz in each of the 17 counts.
In 17 verdicts, the jury found over and over again the existence of aggravating factors, and the existence of some mitigating factors and that the aggravating factors DID NOT outweigh the mitigating factors and they did not recommend the death penalty in any of the counts.
Take from this what you may, but here is what we see:
There will be calls by politicians to allow judges to override jury recommendations for life.
There will be calls by politicians to go back to a less than unanimous requirement for a sentence of a death.
There will be calls by politicians to have people who are convicted of first degree murder to be automatically sentenced to death, with the defense required to rebut the presumption of death.
Put another way, we live in a society that reacts to public cases. The dozens of pedestrian death penalty cases where the defendant is sentenced to death are not reported. But when there is one outlier case in a public setting, politicians will act and will set policy not by reason and deliberation, but by public outrage.
This will be very bad tidings for the defense in death penalty cases for at least the next five years.
Other than life in prison for Cruz, nothing good will come of this. Of that you can be sure.
This is just a tragedy compounded on a tragedy.