US: Florida jury rejects death penalty for Parkland shooter
October 13, 2022
A jury in Fort Lauderdale has requested that gunman Nikolas Cruz be sentenced to life without parole for carrying out a 2018 mass shooting at a school in Florida.
The 12-member jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on a death penalty recommendation.
Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue Cruz's life sentence on November 1, when victims' relatives, as well as students and teachers who were wounded in the incident, will be given the opportunity to speak.
The jury of seven men and five women told the court that it could not reach a unanimous decision, a requirement for the death penalty in Florida.
Many victims' relatives and survivors shook their heads in disbelief, while others looked on angrily as the judge took nearly an hour to read out the jury's decisions on each count in the case. Parents of those killed were seen sobbing as they left the building.
Killer had requested life without parole
Cruz, now 24-years-old, killed 14 students and three school staff members, as well as injuring 17 more people on February 14, 2018, saying he chose Valentine's Day to make it impossible for students to ever celebrate it again.
Cruz had been expelled from the school and was 19 at the time he carried out the crime.
Though defense attorneys agreed that the massacre had been both premeditated and heinous, they claimed the shooter had suffered life-long mental illness due to the fact that his mother had abused alcohol during her pregnancy with him.
Prosecutor Mike Satz rebutted the defense's argument that Cruz suffered a neurological disorder, pointing to the smooth way in which he handled and reloaded his weapon during the incident.
Cruz himself had requested that he be given life in prison without parole so that he could dedicate his life to helping others.
The sentencing trial included eyewitness testimony from survivors and graphic cellphone videos in which students could be heard screaming and crying as well as whispering to one another as they sought shelter while Cruz methodically carried out his rampage.
Victims' family members also delivered heart-wrenching testimony and jurors toured the school, its walls still splattered with blood.
Not only was the shooting one of the deadliest in US history, it is also the deadliest ever to go to trial. Nine other individuals have shot 17 or more people in killings in the US, however, they were all either killed by police or killed themselves before they could be arrested.
The perpetrator of a racially motivated attack that killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, is currently awaiting trial.
In March, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a $127.5 million (€130.4 million) settlement with survivors and relatives of Parkland victims who accused the FBI of negligence due to its failure to act on tips that Cruz was dangerous and planning an attack on the school.
js/rt (AP, Reuters)