The perpetrator of the 2018 Florida high school massacre was sentenced Thursday to life in prison and escaped the death penalty, as the jury overturned that sentence, requested by the prosecutor during the three-month trial.
After just seven hours of deliberation, the jurors maintained several aggravating circumstances, most notably regarding the “hateful, abominable and cruel” nature of the 17 murders committed by Nikolas Cruz with a semi-automatic rifle at his former Parkland high school, at north of Miami. .
However, at least one juror felt they were not enough to compensate for the extenuating circumstances put forward by the defense at trial, particularly regarding the killer’s difficult childhood and mental disorders.
Unanimity would be needed on this point to enforce the death penalty.
Nikolas Cruz, 24, did not respond to Judge Elizabeth Scherer’s reading of the verdict at the Fort Lauderdale courthouse.
Relatives of the victims received the news with serious faces, some in tears, and were heard at a hearing on Nov. 1, in which the magistrate must formally endorse the life sentence.
Several family members said they were “stunned” by the verdict and let their grief and anger explode during a press conference.
On February 14, 2018, 17-year-old Nikolas Cruz caused fear by opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he had been expelled the year before.
In less than ten minutes, it killed 14 students and three adults and injured 17 others.
In October 2021, he pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder.
During the three months that the trial took place, the prosecution took the jurors “back to horror, broadcasting several videos and taking them to the scene of the tragedy”, also highlighting the premeditated nature of the “massacre”, told in a recorded video of Nikolas Cruz before the action:
“May my carnage begin today. May all frightened children take cover,” he said.
Nicolas Cruz, was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, the son of an alcoholic and drug-addicted mother, who later grew up in a “violent home with a depressed foster mother,” his lawyer said, urging jurors not to give in. to the thirst for “vengeance”.
The Parkland attack shocked American public opinion and sparked a national anti-gun protest movement of historic proportions.
Despite his psychiatric history and reports of its dangerousness, Nikolas Cruz was able to legally purchase an AR-15 rifle, a civilian version of assault rifles.
On March 24, 2018, marches organized at the request of young survivors and victims’ parents gathered 1.5 million people to demand stricter regulation of firearms in the United States — without real success.
Source: DN
