Jurors agreed on aggravating circumstances, including the “callous and inhumane” nature of the 17 murders that Nikolas Cruz committed with a semiautomatic rifle at his old school, Parkland High School, north of Miami.
The perpetrator of the 2018 massacre at Parkland, Florida, will spend life in prison, but he was spared the death penalty after jurors rejected the prosecution’s three-month long trial. to be given the death penalty.
After deliberating for just seven hours, jurors agreed on aggravating circumstances, including the “callous and inhumane” nature of the 17 murders committed with a semiautomatic rifle by Nikolas Cruz at his old school, Parkland High School, north of Miami.
But at least one of them ruled that those aggravating factors were not enough to outweigh the mitigating factors presented by the defense, notably Cruz’s difficult childhood and psychological problems.
Unanimity of the jury was required on this point for the death penalty to be imposed.
The only other option was life imprisonment.
Nikolas Cruz, 24, did not react at all when Fort Lauderdale District Court Judge Elizabeth Scherer read the guilty verdict.
Relatives of the victims watched in silence, one of them shaking his head in disapproval. They will have a chance to speak at a Nov. 1 hearing, when the judge will formally uphold Cruz’s sentence of life in prison without parole.
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz spread terror by opening fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he had been expelled the previous year. He fired for at least 10 minutes, killing 14 students and three adults. Another 17 people were injured.
In October 2021, he pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. His trial had as its sole object the determination of the punishment he deserved.
For three months, prosecutors presented to jurors, through testimony and video, the horrors Cruz caused. In fact, the jurors had the opportunity to visit the scene of the tragedy.
The prosecution also insisted that the young man had pre-planned the bloodbath, based on a video he had taken himself.
“Let my slaughter begin today. And all the frightened children run and hide” he said in the video what prosecutor Michael Satz described as “window to his soul».
His lawyer, on the other hand, revealed that the young man was born with embryonic alcoholic syndrome, from a homeless, alcoholic and drug-addicted mother. He grew up in a violent environment, with a depressed stepmother. And he asked jurors not to seek “revenge” on him.
The attack in Parkland shocked the American public and sparked a nationwide protest movement against gun ownership. Despite his psychological problems and signs of dangerousness, Nikolas Cruz was able to legally purchase an AR-15 rifle.
RES-EMP
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
