Nikolas Cruz, the gunman responsible for the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release on Thursday by a 12-member jury.
Driving the news: Cruz’s death penalty was an option, but the jury would have had to agree unanimously.
The most recent:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) declared Thursday that Cruz deserved the death penalty and expressed unhappiness with the jury’s recommendation.
“I believe that if you have a death penalty at all, that scenario — where you’re massacring those students with premeditation and blatant contempt for fundamental humanity — that you deserve the death penalty,” DeSantis said.
The big picture: In October, Cruz pled guilty to all charges in connection with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, which killed 14 students and three staff members.
Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 charges of murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection with the mass shooting.
The Parkland incident was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in the United States.
Among the lines: The jury in the case considered whether the aggravating circumstances of the shooting— such as committing murders that were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel”— outweighed “mitigating factors” of Cruz’s life, which is a step required in Florida before issuing a death sentence.
Cruz’s admission of guilt was one of them, as was his biological mother’s reported drinking problem and his adoptive mother’s alleged inability to obtain him competent psychiatric care.
At least one jury member concluded that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating considerations, so the death penalty was rejected.
They have to say: “We are dissatisfied with today’s outcome. This should have been the death penalty, without a doubt. Seventeen people were brutally murdered “Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa Alhadeff was killed, said.
They have to say: “We are dissatisfied with today’s outcome.
This should have been the death penalty, without a doubt.
Seventeen people were ruthlessly slain “Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, was killed in the massacre, spoke out.
“Our legal system disgusts me.
Those jurors have sickened me.
I’m fed up with the system, “Alyssa’s father, Ilan Alhadeff, stated
“That you can have 17 people killed and 17 more shot and injured while not imposing the death sentence.
What is the purpose of the death penalty?”
“I’m taken aback.
I’m heartbroken.
Today, 17 victims did not receive justice “According to Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg.
“Today, this jury failed our family.”
What’s next: Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on November 1.
Until then, he will be in the custody of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Under Florida law, the families of the slain victims and the survivors have the right to address Cruz in person.