Florida jury spares Parkland school gunman from death penalty

Oct 13 (Reuters) – A Florida jury on Thursday determined to spare Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 individuals in 2018 at a excessive school within the metropolis of Parkland, from the death penalty, as an alternative calling for all times in jail.

Some members of the family of victims shook their heads within the Fort Lauderdale courtroom because the jury rejected the prosecution’s request for the death penalty for Cruz in one of many deadliest school shootings in U.S. historical past, figuring out that aggravating elements have been outweighed by mitigating circumstances.

Cruz, 24, pleaded responsible final 12 months to premeditated homicide at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Fort Lauderdale. Cruz used a semi-automatic rifle to kill 14 college students and three workers members.

The sentencing trial, held after Cruz’s responsible plea, lasted three months. Jurors started their deliberations on Wednesday. Under Florida regulation, a jury have to be unanimous in its determination to advocate {that a} choose sentence Cruz to be executed. The solely different choice within the case was life in jail.

The protection, searching for to avert the death penalty, referred to as witnesses who testified about Cruz’s psychological well being problems ensuing from his organic mom’s substance abuse throughout being pregnant. Cruz’s half-sister testified that their mom drank closely and used medicine together with cocaine whereas she was pregnant with Cruz.

Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set the formal sentencing for Nov. 1. Survivors ought to have one other probability to testify concerning the impression of the capturing through the sentencing listening to, prosecutors advised Scherer on Thursday.

The prosecution argued that Cruz’s crime was premeditated in addition to heinous and merciless, that are amongst standards that Florida regulation establishes for deciding on whether or not a death sentence must be imposed. The sentencing proceedings included testimony from survivors of the capturing in addition to cellphone movies by which college students cried for assist or spoke in hushed whispers as they hid.

Cruz, who on the time of the capturing was 19 and had been expelled from the excessive school, apologized for his crimes and requested to be given a life sentence with out the opportunity of parole to be able to dedicate his life to serving to others.

The United States has skilled quite a few school shootings in latest a long time together with one in May in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 youngsters and two lecturers lifeless.

Some of the youngsters who survived the Parkland rampage shaped “March for Our Lives,” a corporation that referred to as for gun management laws resembling a ban on assault-style rifles. President Joe Biden in June signed the primary main federal gun reform laws in three a long time, which he referred to as a uncommon bipartisan achievement, although it didn’t embrace an assault weapons ban.

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Additional reporting by Donna Bryson. Editing by Will Dunham and Jonathan Oatis

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