Florida school shooter gets life in prison, avoids death penalty

A shooter who killed 17 people at his former high school in the state of Florida in the US, has avoided the death penalty for his crimes. The US jury decided that Nikolas Cruz should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to the Straits Times, the jury deliberated for a full day before deciding on the 24-year-old’s fate over the 2018 murders of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As the death penalty needed a unanimous vote, at least one juror found it was not justified due to mitigating circumstances. Melisa McNeill, Cruz’s lawyer, previously urged the jurors to show mercy to the young man who she described as being a brain-damaged, mentally ill, and broken person.

As the verdict was read, Cruz stared expressionless while seated at the defence table. Several victims’ relatives shook their heads in disbelief while in the public gallery as they heard the final verdict.

As the verdict was read, Cruz, wearing a striped sweater and large glasses, stared expressionless at the defence table. At the same time, several relatives of the victims in the public gallery shook their heads in disbelief.

Cruz pleaded guilty to the Valentine’s Day murders just last year, a mere three years after the horrific crime took place. Prosecutors had argued during a three-month penalty trial that the appropriate sentence was the death penalty.

Cruz was a former student at the school, which is located in a suburb of Miami. Police say he had a pattern of incidents and unnerving behaviour in the past. The killing spree surpassed the Columbine High School massacre in the number of deaths making it the deadliest high school shooting in US history. Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a bill in response to the massacre that implemented new restrictions to the state’s gun laws and allowed for properly trained teachers to be armed with a gun. The bill also allowed for the hiring of school resource officers.