THE gunman suspected of killing 17 people at a Florida high school who may face the death penalty is being represented by a barrister from Barnsley.
Jodie Woodward, a criminal barrister at London’s 15 New Bridge Street, is a member of Nikolas Cruz’s defence team.
She is on secondment from the London firm on an internship at Broward County Public Defender’s Office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Cruz, 19, is accused of killing 17 people after opening fire at his former school, Stoneman Douglas High, on Valentine’s Day.
It was the deadliest school shooting since 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut in 2012.
He has admitted carrying out the attack, and this week prosecutors in Florida said they would be seeking the death penalty.
In a notice filed on Tuesday, prosecutors said they would prove the crime was ‘especially heinous, atrocious or cruel’.
Jodie, 34, of London but formerly of Fish Dam Lane at Monk Bretton, is among the team who will be arguing for his life to be spared and he instead serve his sentence in prison.
“We still stand ready to immediately plead guilty to 34 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole,” said Howard Finkelstein, a county public defender with whom Jodie is working.
“We are not saying he is not guilty but we can’t plead guilty while death is still on the table.”
Cruz, who had been expelled, was said to be heavily armed when he began the rampage. Police said he entered the school - about an hour north of Miami - wearing a gas mask and carrying a rifle, ammunition cartridges and smoke grenades. The fire alarm was set off so people would leave the classrooms and pour into the corridors.
Three people were killed outside the school, and another 12 inside. Two others died later in hospital from their injuries.
A football coach, a swimmer who had just won a college scholarship, and a geography teacher shot while trying to barricade the door were among the dead.
Jodie had only been volunteering in the US for about a month after receiving funding from legal charities Amicus and The Kalisher Trust, when she was assigned to Cruz’s case.
She was called to the bar in 2006, and her CV says she has a ‘strong commitment to representing defendants vulnerable through age, mental health and other incapacity’.
She has previously served on secondment at Kingsley Napley where she helped prepare the defence of Rebekah Brooks in the News of the World phone hacking trial.
She has also completed secondments at the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Her other interests saw her found the cancer charity Uplift for young breast cancer survivors, which was featured in the Barnsley Chronicle in 2016. It was set up to provide events and a positive environment where sufferers and their family and friends can get together and enjoy life.
The Chronicle tried to contact Jodie for comment but she was unavailable.
