A Florida jury opted on Thursday to spare Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people at a high school in the city of Parkland in 2018, the death sentence, instead recommending life in prison.
Some victims’ families shook their heads in the Fort Lauderdale courtroom as the jury rejected the prosecution’s plea for the death sentence in one of the bloodiest school shootings in U.S. history, ruling that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating circumstances.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty to premeditated murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which is about 50 km (30 miles) north of Fort Lauderdale. He pleaded guilty last year. Cruz killed 14 students and 3 staff members with a semi-automatic rifle.
After Cruz pleaded guilty, the trial to decide how to punish him took three months. The jury started to talk about the case on Wednesday. Under Florida law, a jury must all agree on one thing before recommending to a judge that Cruz be put to death. Life in prison was the only other choice in the case.
In order to avoid the death penalty, Cruz’s lawyers brought in witnesses who said that his mental health problems were caused by his biological mother’s drug use while she was pregnant with him. Cruz’s half-sister testified that while their mother was pregnant with Cruz, she drank a lot and used drugs, including cocaine.
Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has set November 1 as the date for the official sentencing. On Thursday, prosecutors told Scherer that the survivors should have another chance to talk about how the shooting changed their lives during the sentencing hearing.
The prosecution maintained that Cruz’s offence met the criteria established by Florida law for determining whether a death sentence should be given, including that it was premeditated, heinous, and cruel. Students who had escaped the shooting testified at the sentencing hearing, and footage shot on cellphones showed them pleading for help or speaking in whispers as they hid.
Cruz, who was 19 years old at the time of the shooting and had been expelled from the high school, has apologised for his actions and requested a life sentence without the chance of parole so that he can devote the rest of his life to helping others.
In May, a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a high school in Uvalde, Texas, one of many school shootings in the United States in recent decades.
A group of Parkland shooting survivors called “March for Our Lives” to advocate for stricter gun laws like an outright ban on military-style assault guns. Although it did not include an assault weapons prohibition, in June President Joe Biden signed the first substantial federal gun reform legislation in three decades.
