Jurors in the Parkland shooter’s trial will visit the mass shooting site on Thursday on what would have been victim Joaquin Oliver’s 22nd birthday

“We knew, in fact, that this second would come. It is a second that’s a part of a course of,” mentioned Manuel Oliver, Joaquin’s father, now an activist and organizer geared toward combating gun violence. “Crucial factor here’s what occurred to our son, how he suffered that day and what we’re in a position to do after that. That is what actually issues right here.”

Jurors had been instructed on Wednesday “to keep away from touching, dealing with or shifting something.” The choose additionally instructed them to discover the stage on their very own and at their very own tempo, shifting as a bunch from flooring to flooring. Cruz should not be on the crime scene.

“Nothing might be defined or reported to you,” the choose’s directions state. The jurors had been additionally instructed to keep away from chatting with anybody till the viewing was over.

Jurors won’t be permitted to have a smartphone, smartwatch or any sort of digital camera in the course of the jury go to. In court docket, legal professionals inspired the choose to ask jurors to put on closed-toe sneakers as they may encounter glass on the ground.

The present section of the trial is to find out Cruz’s sentence: prosecutors are asking for the loss of life penalty, whereas Cruz’s protection attorneys are asking the jury for all times in jail with out the opportunity of parole. To suggest a loss of life sentence, the jurors have to be unanimous. In the event that they do, the choose might select to comply with the advice or sentence Cruz to life as a substitute.

“I can not actually be comfortable if I smile”, testifies the daddy of the sufferer

Following the go to, affect statements are anticipated in court docket, the choose mentioned.

A lot of the testimony in Broward County Court docket — significantly from the mother and father of the 14 slain college students — targeted on all of the issues the victims and their households won’t ever have the ability to do and the irreparable injury to their every day lives.

“Our household is damaged. There’s this fixed vacancy,” mentioned Max Schachter, father of 14-year-old Alex, who beloved chocolate chip cookies, enjoying the trombone and enjoying video video games.

“I really feel like I can not actually be comfortable if I smile,” Schachter mentioned Wednesday. “I do know that behind that smile is the stark realization that part of me will at all times be unhappy and depressing as a result of Alex is not right here.”

The lack of her daughter Meadow Pollack, 18, “destroyed” Shara Kaplan’s life, she instructed the jury on Tuesday, “and my capacity to stay a productive existence.” To precise the affect of her daughter’s loss of life on her, she says, she must rip out her coronary heart and present them the way it had shattered into one million items.

And the Hoyer household won’t ever be the identical once more. “We had been a household unit of 5 at all times making an attempt to suit right into a world of even numbers,” mentioned Tom Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke – the youngest of the three – was killed. “Two, 4, or six-seat tables in a restaurant. Two-, four-, or six-ticket packages for occasions. Issues like that.”

However the Hoyers are now not a household of 5, and “the world won’t ever really feel proper once more, now that we’re a household of 4,” Hoyer mentioned.

“When Luke died, one thing disappeared inside me,” he mentioned. “And I’ll by no means recover from this sense.”

To make their sentencing choice, jurors will hear prosecutors and protection attorneys argue aggravating components and mitigating circumstances — the explanation why Cruz ought to or shouldn’t be executed.

The sufferer affect statements add one other layer, giving households and mates of the victims their very own day in court docket, though the choose instructed the jury that the statements shouldn’t be thought of aggravating components.