Parkland school shooter gets life in prison without parole: Jury recommends

In connection with the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead, a jury has recommended that Nikolas Cruz be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The 12-person jury’s conviction was announced in front of the shooter, who maintained his expressionless throughout, and clearly upset family members in a packed courtroom on Thursday.

After more than a day of deliberations in the trial, which began on July 18, the jury made its choice.

The outcome of the trial would determine whether he would get the death penalty or a life sentence.

The defense had requested life in prison, while the prosecution had requested the death sentence. The death penalty had to be unanimously decided by the jury.

A total of 17, one for each victim, verdict forms were read by Judge Elizabeth Scherer.

In each case, the jury recommended a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The verdict indicates that the jury was unable to reach a consensus in favor of Cruz’s death for at least one victim.

The jury did determine, however, that while there were aggravating circumstances that could have justified the death penalty, they did not outweigh the mitigating circumstances.

The verdict came at the end of a three-month sentence trial that included moving evidence from the victims’ families, gruesome footage, and a visit to the murder scene at the school’s freshmen building, which has been shut down since the massacre on February 14, 2018, among other things.

Cruz, now 24 years old, attacked his previous school with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle when he was just 19 years old. He escaped the scene and was apprehended nearby in Coral Springs. Last year, he entered a guilty plea.

It was the bloodiest mass shooting case that ever went to trial in the United States, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reported that nine additional Americans who shot at least 17 people dead perished during or right after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. Currently awaiting trial is the culprit in the 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas, which claimed the lives of 23 people.