DEEP SYMPATHIES

Parkland Judge Kicked Off Separate Death Penalty Case Over Hug

The Florida Supreme Court honed in on the fact that Judge Elizabeth Scherer had hugged a prosecutor in the courtroom after sentencing Nikolas Cruz to life in prison.

The Broward County circuit judge who presided over Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz’s trial last year was on Thursday disqualified from overseeing over a separate death penalty case, with the Florida Supreme Court linking the move to the judge’s behavior after she sentenced Cruz to life in prison. The high court unanimously agreed to disqualify Judge Elizabeth Scherer from the case of convicted death-row inmate Randy Tundidor, ruling that Tundidor had a “reasonable fear” he might not receive a fair and impartial judgment from Scherer. In its opinion, the Supreme Court said that the “crucial facts that together were sufficient to create such a well-founded fear” included the moment in Cruz’s trial that Scherer hugged Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger “in the courtroom while still wearing a robe.” Klinger also worked on Tundidor’s case at one point, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.