A Florida commission says the judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be publicly reprimanded for showing bias toward
A Florida commission says the judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be publicly reprimanded for showing bias toward the prosecution. The Judicial Qualifications Commission said Monday that Circuity Judge Elizabeth Scherer sometimes allowed her emotions to overcome her judgement and violated several rules governing judicial conduct in her actions toward Nikolas Cruz's attorneys. Those included unfairly chastising them after they rested their case. It will now be up to the Florida Supreme Court to decide her punishment. She is retiring June 30. Cruz received a life sentence at the conclusion of the six-month penalty trial for murdering 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Declining enrollment and poor completion rates raise concerns that underserved students and communities could be left behind. Gregory Haile, the president of Broward College, sees a way forward.
Saying they haven't had raises in 20 years, Broward's court reporters have said they are going to withdraw from their contract if they don't see increases in wages. That could grind the justice system to a halt for the most serious felony cases in the county.
Under a Broward schools proposal, the Promise program would be replaced by a program that would not involve the school district issuing civil citations, which are non-criminal warnings that law enforcement may refer to when deciding whether to arrest someone for a later crime.