Terry Spencer

April 12, 2023 | Daily Business Review

A fight is developing in Florida's Legislature over a measure that would allow fire stations and hospitals to install boxes where distressed mothers could leave their unwanted newborns.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

December 06, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Republican David Rivera has been marred by scandals stretching back to his days in Congress from 2011 to 2013.

By Joshua Goodman and Terry Spencer

7 minute read

October 31, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Nikolas Cruz apologized in court last year after pleading guilty to the murders and attempted murders, but families told reporters they found the apology self-serving and aimed at garnering sympathy.

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read

October 17, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Some defense attorneys and capital punishment experts said it wasn't surprising the jurors couldn't unanimously agree. Only 18 death sentences were handed down nationwide last year, two of them in Florida.

By Terry Spencer, Jessica Gresko and Brendan Farrington

6 minute read

October 14, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. The seven-man, five-woman jury unanimously agreed there were aggravating factors to warrant a possible death sentence, such as agreeing that the murders were "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel."

By Terry Spencer and Anthony Izaguirre

3 minute read

October 10, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz's defense is that his birth mother's heavy drinking during pregnancy left him brain damaged.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

October 04, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz told a prosecution psychiatrist he began contemplating a mass murder during middle school, doing extensive research…

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read

September 14, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The sudden announcement by lead attorney Melisa McNeill led to a heated exchange between her and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who called the decision without warning to her or the prosecution "the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case."

By Terry Spencer

3 minute read

September 12, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The defense wants to show that from Cruz's birth to a hard-drinking, crack-smoking Fort Lauderdale prostitute, he never fully received needed help even as he grew increasingly out of control.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

September 02, 2022 | Daily Business Review

His public defenders are in their second week of presenting testimony about Cruz's troubled life — from his birth to a crack-addicted, hard-drinking prostitute who put him up for adoption to a childhood filled with emotional and psychological problems that witnesses said were never adequately addressed.

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read