The jury decided on Thursday that Nikolas Cruz should receive a life sentence without the chance of parole for the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018 that claimed the lives of 17 people.
The death penalty was not justified by the jury in any of the 17 murder cases because mitigating circumstances exceeded aggravating ones in each case.
Cruz, 24, had admitted responsibility to the intentional killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. In one of the bloodiest school shootings in American history, the shooter killed 14 pupils and three staff members using a semi-automatic weapon.
Cruz’s crime was argued to be deliberate, atrocious, and cruel during the three-month sentencing hearing, which is one of the requirements Florida law specifies for determining a death sentence.
Cruz’s legal team acknowledged the seriousness of his actions but urged the jury to take into account mitigating circumstances, such as lifelong mental health issues brought on by his biological mother’s drug usage when she was pregnant.
A death sentence could only have been given in accordance with Florida law if the jury had unanimously recommended his execution. Life in prison was the only alternative choice.
Cruz, who was 19 years old at the time of the shooting and had been kicked out of the high school, had expressed regret for his actions and begged for a life sentence without the chance of parole so that he may devote his life to helping others.
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