Nikolas Cruz

Fourteen students and three staff members were killed in the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day in 2018.

Cruz's rampage is the deadliest mass shooting to go to trial in the U.S., according to The Associated Press. A previous version of this story said Cruz has been sentenced to life in prison. Late that day, the jury asked to see the murder weapon. "You now know that Nikolas is a brain-damaged, broken, mentally-ill person, through no fault of his own," Cruz's lawyer, Melissa McNeil, stated in closing arguments. Prosecutors had pushed for the death sentence. "That you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty. Following the jury's recommendation, prosecutors requested that those who were victims of Cruz be allowed to present testimony about the crime and what they see as the appropriate sentence. The jury unanimously found that there had been aggravating factors in the murders Cruz committed. The question facing jurors now was whether Cruz would spend the rest of his life in prison or be sentenced to death. You set a precedent for the next mass killing, that nothing happens to you. He entered a school building through an unlocked side door and used an AR-15-style rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members, as well as wound 17 others. Cruz carried out the massacre on Valentine's Day in 2018.

The expelled student was 18 years old when he used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members in one of America's worst ...

Cruz had apologised for his crimes and asked to be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole in order to dedicate his life to helping others. The expelled student was 19 years old when he used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members in The defence alleged during cross-examination that Cruz was sexually molested and raped by a 12-year-old neighbour when he was nine. I cannot understand. The expelled student was 18 years old when he used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members in one of America's worst school shootings. I just don't understand."

A Florida jury on Thursday recommended Nikolas Cruz—the gunman who killed 17 students and teachers in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High ...

One YouTube video published by a user named Nikolas Cruz said “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The trial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, opened in July, nine months after Cruz pleaded guilty, with former teachers and students, including some who were injured in the attack, [recounting](https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/07/19/they-heard-something-they-never-heard-beforeparkland-shooting-victims-give-harrowing-testimony-at-sentencing-trial/?sh=5dffd9e37ed4) the attack as students ran for safety. Those disorders led to the shooting, she claimed, asking the jury “in a civilized society, do we kill brain damaged, mentally ill, broken people?” 14, 2018, with a semi-automatic military-style AR-15 rifle, with which he opened fire on his former classmates. Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, walked into the school on Feb. Social media posts, journal entries and YouTube videos released over the following days showed Cruz, a former U.S. A Florida jury on Thursday recommended Nikolas Cruz—the gunman who killed 17 students and teachers in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, after a three-month trial to determine whether Cruz faces a life sentence or the death penalty.

The jury recommend life in prison for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to killing 17 in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

During that hearing, survivors of the shooting will get a chance to share their views on the verdict. [Cruz](https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/courts/2022/10/06/parkland-shooter-trial-nikolas-cruz-manipulates-sandy-hook-mother-expert-says/8194864001/), then 19 and now 24, pleaded guilty in 2021 to killing 17 people and wounding 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. She tapped the screen each time it went dark, looking at him as she awaited the verdict. "I pray that that animal suffers every day in jail. "This should have been the death penalty one hundred percent," said Alyssa's mother, Lori Alhadeff. "There are crimes for which the only just penalty is death," he said. I'm disgusted with the system," he said. [The Palm Beach Post is covering the daily Cruz trial](https://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/?q=Nikolas+Cruz) proceedings live. Jurors set a dangerous precedent by recommending life, he said. The eventual verdict was worse. "So I was very disappointed to see that." Victims' family members in the courtroom gallery scowled, shook their heads or wept as circuit judge Elizabeth Scherer read the recommendation Thursday.

The sentence caps an emotional three-month trial in which victim relatives and survivors recounted the 2018 Valentine's Day massacre in painful detail.

A US jury on Thursday rejected the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at his former Florida high school, opting instead for life ...

A death penalty recommendation needed to be unanimous and at least one or more of the 12 jurors found it was not justified because of mitigating circumstances. The jury deliberated for a full day Wednesday and briefly Thursday before deciding that the 24-year-old Cruz should receive life in prison for the February 2018 murders of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A US jury on Thursday rejected the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at his former Florida high school, opting instead for life imprisonment without the chance of parole.

A non-unanimous Florida jury has returned a verdict of life without parole for Nikolas Cruz , the teen offender convicted of killing 17 people in the…

“As a result, you are far less likely to be sentenced to death today than if the trial took place in the 1990s,” he said. He wants the gunman to live.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/09/27/parkland-school-shooting-trial-death-penalty/), Washington Post, September 27, 2022. about the death penalty have shifted tremendously” since death sentencing peaked in the United States 25 years ago. He said his anger was directed less at Cruz and more at the systemic failures to prevent the shooting. In closing arguments, defense attorney Melisa McNeill described Cruz as “a brain damaged, broken, mentally ill person, through no fault of his own.” She asked the jury, “in a civilized humane society, do we kill brain damaged, mentally ill, broken people?…I hope not.” His Democratic Party opponent, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, tweeted, “There are crimes for which the only just penalty is death. Victims’ family members who were present at the verdict reacted with shock and anger at the verdict. “I just don’t think anything else is appropriate except a capital sentence in this case,” he said. Prosecutors had rejected a defense offer in 2019 for Cruz to plead guilty and be sentenced to 34 consecutive life sentences. The trial revealed differences of opinion among the victims’ families and community members about the appropriate punishment for Cruz. The jury foreman, Benjamin Thomas, told Florida law, like that of nearly every death-penalty state, requires a unanimous jury verdict before a death sentence may be imposed.