A jury of five women and seven men recommended life in prison on the first count for confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and staff members died.
Gena Hoyer holds a photograph of her son, Luke, who was killed in the 2018 shootings, as she awaits the verdict in the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. Cruz, who plead guilty to 17 counts of premeditated murder in the 2018 shootings, is the most lethal mass shooter to stand trial in the U.S.
The recommendation is binding. The judge does not have the discretion to impose the death penalty, now that at least one juror found that shooter Nikolas Cruz should not be executed. The jury deliberated for just seven hours before coming back with the decision.Cruz will be formally sentenced on Nov. 1. The victims have the right to speak at that hearing, giving their input on what penalty they thought was appropriate.
Broward defense lawyer Elias Hilal, who is not associated with the case, said the death penalty in Broward County was effectively overturned. “Nobody in this county can ever get the death penalty again,” he said. “These poor kids were killed in a cold-blooded murder by a monster, yet this killer gets to sit in jail while their parents go home to an empty bedroom.”
Linda Beigel Schulman, Michael Schulman, Patricia Padauy Oliver and Fred Guttenberg hug in the courtroom as they gather on Thursday before the reading of the verdict in the sentencing trial for confessed Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
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