THE HARDEST CASE FOR MERCY

For the Marshall Project. 2024

This story was written and reported by Joe Sexton for the Marshall Project, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Feature Writing in 2025. Photographed in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, it tells the story of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that took the lives of 17 people; the life of the shooter, Nicholas Cruz; and his legal defense team, Suzerain Capital Defense. This complex story is one of the most deeply reported accounts I’ve ever been assigned to photograph. Joe’s reporting is both unflinching and cannot be reduced to easy moralizing. It’s best experienced as a slow, long read.
Buses parked outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the background, the 1200 building can be seen, where Nicholas Cruz murdered 17 people in 2018. The building is slated for demolition in summer 2024.
A tree-wrapped heart with “Aaron” on it outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Aaron Feis was a football coach and one the 17 people murdered by Nicholas Cruz at the high school in 2018.
The 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where Nicholas Cruz murdered 17 people in 2018. The building was demolished in summer 2024 shortly aftery after this photo was taken.
Casey Secor
A written sign in Casey Secor's office in Amherst, MA.
Kate O’Shea in Amherst, MA. Working as a mitigation specialist, Ms. O’Shea was part of the legal defense team for Nicholas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL in 2018.
Kate O'Shea and Casey Secor in Amherst, MA. They were both part of the capital defense legal team for Nicholas Cruz, the gunman in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
Casey Secor holds a challenge coin at his home in Amherst, MA. The coin was given to him by Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, who was murdered in the Parkland mass shooting.
At Casey Secor’s home in Amherst MA, a signed page by Bryan Stevenson from his book, “Just Mercy.”
Amherst, MA
A view from a meeting room at the Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A poster highlighting the Cruz defense team at the Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joel Maney at the Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale. Mr. Maney is a capital crimes investigator working for the public defenders office in Broward County, and was part of the legal defense team the Nichols Cruz case.
Joel Maney at the Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale. Mr. Maney is a capital crimes investigator working for the public defenders office in Broward County, and was part of the legal defense team the Nichols Cruz case.
The maximum-security jail next to the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. This was the facility where Nicholas Cruz was housed during his murder trial. In the foreground is the New River, a popular waterfront that runs through Fort Lauderdale.
Construction at the site where a memorial will be built to honor the 17 victims killed by Nicholas Cruz in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The memorial will be in an 150-acre preserve that borders Coral Springs and Parkland.
The intersection of Southeast 17th St and Miami Road in Fort Lauderdale. It’s a location where Brenda Woodard, Nicholas Cruz’s mother, spent time.
The rock garden outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where Nicholas Cruz murdered 17 people in 2018.