The perpetrator of a massacre at a Florida high school in 2018 will end his days in prison but escaped the death penalty on Thursday, after a jury overturned this sentence, although strongly demanded by the prosecution during three months of a trial. exhausting.
After just seven hours of deliberation, jurors retained several aggravating circumstances, in particular regarding the “hateful, heinous and cruel” nature of the 17 murders committed with a semi-automatic rifle by Nikolas Cruz at his former high school in Parkland, north of miami
But at least one member of the jury considered that they were not enough to compensate for the mitigating circumstances raised by the defense during the trial, in particular about the difficult childhood and mental disorders of the killer. Unanimity on this point would have been necessary for the death penalty to be upheld.
17 dead and 17 wounded
With his face crossed out by imposing glasses, Nikolas Cruz, 24, showed no reaction to the reading of the verdict by Judge Elizabeth Scherer in a Fort Lauderdale court.
The relatives of the victims received the news with serious faces, one of whom nodded in disagreement. They will be able to speak at a hearing on November 1, during which the magistrate must formally endorse the incomprehensible sentence of life imprisonment.
On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz, then 17, caused fear by opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he had been expelled a year earlier. In less than ten minutes, he had killed 14 students and three adults, and injured 17 others.
In October 2021, he pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Therefore, his trial had the sole purpose of determining the appropriate sentence.
The killer had “planned a massacre”
During three months of harrowing hearings, the prosecution once again plunged jurors into horror, releasing numerous videos and taking them to the scene of the tragedy. He also insisted on the premeditated character of the bloodbath, based on a video recorded by Nikolas Cruz before the action.
“Let my massacre begin today. Let all the frightened children run and hide,” he said.
This video was a “window into his soul”, he had “planned a systematic massacre”, prosecutor Michael Satz launched on Tuesday, requesting the death penalty.
psychiatric history
He was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, to an alcoholic and drug-addicted homeless mother, and then grew up in a violent home with a depressed adoptive mother, his lawyer had said, asking jurors not to give in to the thirst for “revenge.”
The Parkland attack shocked the American public and sparked a national anti-gun protest movement of historic proportions.
Despite his psychiatric history and reports of his dangerousness, Nikolas Cruz had been able to legally purchase an AR-15 rifle, a civilian version of assault rifles.
Calls to regulate arms sales
On March 24, 2018, marches organized by young survivors and parents of victims brought together 1.5 million people to demand stricter regulation of firearms in the United States.
This mobilization had not led to strong measures at the federal level, in particular due to the influence of the arms lobby in Congress.
The country continues to be the scene of bloody shootings. Still 19 children and two teachers were killed in May at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Source: BFM TV
