BREAKING: Nikolas Cruz Sentenced to Life in Prison over Parkland Shooting as Victims’ Families Weep in Courtroom
Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who murdered 17 (mostly children) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 in a mass
Ivy Griffith
Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who murdered 17 (mostly children) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 in a mass shooting, has been sentenced to life in prison.
Family members of the victims watched stunned in the courtroom as the possibility of a death sentence was turned down on one count after another.
It’s rare to get a death penalty verdict in South Florida. I respect the jury’s decision in the Nikolas Cruz case, but if the death penalty doesn’t apply to the slaughter of 17 innocents — nearly all children — then when?
— Dave Aronberg (@aronberg) October 13, 2022
Cruz's trial has spurred a public debate about mental illness and what is appropriate punishment for mentally ill people who commit heinous crimes.
The judge has scheduled a sentencing hearing for November and families will have a chance to address the sentencing.
The New York Times writes, "Despite finding that prosecutors had proved many aggravating factors in the Parkland massacre — including that the murders of 17 people were especially heinous and committed in a cold and calculating manner — the jurors did not unanimously decide that those factors outweighed the mitigating factors raised by Nioklas [sic] Cruz’s defense team. Those mitigating factors included details about his childhood and the fact that his birth mother drank heavily while she was pregnant with him."
This is a developing story.