Parkland Prosecutors Want Investigation of Juror Threat Claim

Florida prosecutors are calling for an investigation into claims that one juror in the case of Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz threatened another, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

In a motion filed on Thursday, prosecutors say that a juror called the Broward State Attorney's Office following the reading of the verdict in the case and "informed the support staff member that during deliberations she received what she perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror while in the jury room."

Prosecutors are calling on law enforcement to interview this juror, saying "a crime may have been committed."

Under Florida law, threatening a member of the jury is a third-degree felony which can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The jury ruled on Thursday that Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, be sentenced to life in prison rather than the death penalty. The Sun-Sentinel notes that juror misconduct allegations made after a trial is concluded cannot change the outcome of that trial if it was decided in the defendant's favor.

The jury foreman, Benjamin Thomas, told local news outlet WFOR-ch.4 that three jurors opposed execution.

"There was one with a hard no," he said. "She couldn't do it. And there was another two that ended up voting the same way."

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