A 12-member jury in the US state of Florida on Thursday recommended a life sentence for Nikolas Cruz, the perpetrator of the 2018 shooting at a Parkland school. Seventeen people were killed and seventeen others were injured. Cruz escaped the death penalty because of that decision.
Nikolas Cruz, 24, killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine’s Day 2018. During the six-minute attack, he fired an AR-15 assault rifle into several classrooms and injured 17 more. Cruz was 19 at the time and suspended from school. The Public Prosecution Service demanded the death penalty for this atrocity.
In Florida, it is a jury that decides the sentence in these cases. The 12-member jury deliberated and demanded life in prison instead of the death penalty. The judge will now adopt this decision. The jury found the aggravating circumstances proven, but were divided on whether they outweighed the aggravating circumstances. Those extenuating factors include details about his childhood, such as the fact that his birth mother drank heavily while pregnant with him.
“This is unreal”
The parents of murdered Alyssa Alhadeff (14) said they were “disgusted” by the killer’s pardon. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, her father, Ilan Alhadeff, said: “Then why do we have the death penalty? This is not about personal beliefs. It is about the heinous crime that has been committed.”
Others were in tears and hugged as the sentences were read. Tony Montalto, the father of Gina Montalto (14), later told reporters that he found the sentences “unreal”. “Today’s ruling was another blow to many of us. The monster that killed them may still be alive. He pressed the barrel of his weapon against my daughter’s chest, which doesn’t make up for the fact that he had a difficult upbringing, does it?”
The judge has set 1 November as the date for pronouncing the sentence. She did this to give victims the opportunity to express themselves before the formal sentence is handed down. At the end of November, the US government also reached a settlement with the relatives of the deadly shooting. They were awarded damages totaling about $130 million.
The killings have sparked a national movement for tougher gun laws and greater safety in schools. Nevertheless, several shootings still take place in the US every year and the right to possession and possession of weapons has not yet been abolished.
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