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Jury recommends life in prison without parole for gunman, rejects the death penalty

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz stands with Assistant Public Defender Nawal Bashimam (L) and sentence mitigation specialist Kate O’Shea as jurors leave the courtroom to begin deliberations in the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on October. 12, 2022.

Amy Beth Bennett | AFP | Getty Images

A jury has recommended that Nikolas Cruz be sentenced to life in prison without parole in the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

The 12-person jury’s verdict was read in a packed courtroom Thursday before visibly distraught family members and the shooter, who remained blank-faced throughout.

The jury reached its decision after over a day of deliberations in the trial that kicked off July 18.

The trial was to decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, while the defense had asked for life in prison. The jury had to reach a unanimous decision for the death sentence.

Jury rejects death penalty

Judge Elizabeth Scherer read through the verdict forms — a total of 17, one for each victim.

The jury recommended life without the possibility for parole in all cases. The decision means that the jury could not unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed for at least one victim. 

However, the jury did find there were aggravating factors that could warrant the death sentence, but that they did not outweigh the mitigating circumstances. 

Family members of the victims were visibly emotional, some shaking their heads and others wiping tears. 

Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, dropped her head into her hand as the verdict related to her daughter was read.

A sentencing hearing was set for Nov. 1 as prosecutors argued that the surviving victims of the Parkland shooting have the right to express themselves and say what they could not during victim impact statements prior to a sentence being announced. 

Families left ‘heartbroken’ and ‘disgusted’

Following the verdict, the parents of Parkland victim Alyssa Alhadeff denounced the jury’s recommendation.

Lori Alhadeff — Alyssa’s mother who has a “Live for Alyssa” tattoo on her arm — said, “We are beyond disappointed with the outcome today. This should have been the death penalty 100%”

“I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome. I just don’t understand this,” she said.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is seen on a TV screen in the media room next to the courtroom as the judge Elizabeth Scherer reads the jury verdict in the penalty phase of the trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, October 13, 2022.

Marco Bello | Reuters

Her husband, Ilan Alhadeff, said, “The jurors let us down.”

“I am disgusted with our legal system. I am disgusted with those jurors,” he said. “I pray that that animal suffers every day of his life in jail, and he should have a short life.”

He said that the jury’s decision sets a precedent for other mass shooters, adding, “He should have been given the death penalty from the get-go.”

The three-month trial

On Valentine’s Day 2018, the then 19-year-old gunman stormed the high school wielding an AR-15-style rifle and released a spray of bullets. 

Cruz pleaded guilty last October to murdering 14 students and three staff members in the massacre. 

During closing arguments Tuesday, defense counsel Melisa McNeill told the jury before they started deliberations: “One day I promise you, you will ask yourself, did I make the right decision? You will never forget voting for life.”

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz concluded the state’s closing arguments by emotionally reading each victim’s name saying, “The appropriate sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty.” 

The lengthy trial saw prosecutors call witnesses who recalled seeing students and staff members die and argue that the gunman had displayed racist and misogynistic behavior online prior to the massacre. Violent writings and drawings were found in his jail cell in the spring.

The defense argued that his birth mother’s alcohol abuse during her pregnancy led to his erratic and violent behavior.

In a rare move, jurors in August visited the site of the massacre, where nothing had been changed from that deadly day more than four years ago, except for the removal of the victims’ bodies and some personal items. They walked past dried Valentine’s Day rose petals scattered on classroom floors, large pools of dried blood and bullet-riddled walls.

‘I didn’t have anyone else to kill’

In the trial, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Charles Scott testified for the state that the gunman meets the criteria for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, meaning he showed no regard for right and wrong, and there was evidence showing he knew what he was doing. 

“So, it’s not that he didn’t know or understand that. He did,” Scott said, NBC Miami reported. “It’s just that [people] with a social personality disorder, they don’t care.”  

In Scott’s chilling testimony Oct. 4, he spoke of his jailhouse interview with the shooter, who told him he ended the shooting because “I didn’t have anyone else to kill.”

The trial also saw tension between the defense and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer in which the gunman’s attorneys filed a motion for her to step down, accusing her of being biased, but she refused.

The motion came after Scherer rebuked lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team outside of the jury’s presence, accusing them of being “unprofessional” when they unexpectedly rested their case after only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they initially intended to testify had been called. 

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