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It was delayed after the state 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. She stopped short of condemning the jurors personally for their decision to recommend life without the possibility of parole and acknowledged the process was likely traumatizing for them as well. The mother of Helena Ramsay, a 17-year-old Marjory Stoneman senior who was killed in the Parkland massacre, made an impassioned plea for change and condemned the trial's outcome outside court today.
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The jury unanimously found that there had been aggravating factors in the murders Cruz committed. But at least one juror concluded that for each murder, the aggravating factors did not outweigh mitigating circumstances in his case, and thus the death penalty is not merited — resulting in the recommendation of a life sentence. Nikolas Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to 17 charges of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
What's required for Cruz to get the death penalty
The sentencing came at the end of a highly publicized trial that ended in October with the jury failing to reach unanimous agreement on putting the defendant to death. If the jury cannot unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed for at least one victim, he will be sentenced to life without parole - Scherer cannot overrule the jury. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire.
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Juror Denise Cunha sent a short handwritten note to the judge the day after the trial, defending her vote for a life sentence and denying she intended to vote that way before the trial began. "It didn't go the way I would've liked or the way I voted but that's how the jury system works," Thomas said. One by one, the family members of the victims walked up to the podium to give their statements after the verdict, all of them expressing shock and anger that the jury voted against the death penalty. One of the jurors who voted not to sentence Nikolas Cruz to death detailed some of her experience in a handwritten letter to the judge.
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A death sentence recommendation requires a unanimous vote on at least one victim. If one or more jurors vote for life on all victims, that will be his sentence. The jury spared Cruz, 24, from the death penalty Thursday for killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, sending him to prison for the remainder of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears. 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. In closing arguments Tuesday, lead prosecutor Mike Satz told jurors that Cruz had hunted his victims during his siege of the school, returning to some of those he'd wounded to shoot them again, and kill them.
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Cruz’s own lawyers said the jury’s act of mercy stood in stark contrast to the defendant’s own actions at the school, but some family members of the victims openly wished for the gunman’s fellow inmates to do what the state now cannot — make Cruz pay for his crimes with his life. Tony Montalto, the father of victim Gina Montalto, 14, said the aggravating factors in the case should have outweighed the mitigating factors. 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. The family of 15-year-old Parkland massacre victim Peter Wang says they are "shocked" at the jury's decision in the Parkland school shooting case.
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"This should have been the death penalty, 100%," Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed in the shooting, said moments after the verdict was read. "I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome. I cannot understand. I just don’t understand." If they do, the jurors can then recommend a death sentence - but that's not required. A juror can ignore the weighing exercise and vote for life out of mercy for Cruz. "This should have been the death penalty, 100%. Seventeen people were brutally murdered on Feb. 14, 2018. I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome . I cannot understand. I just don't understand."
That we do not create an atmosphere where dog whistles are being emanated from this courtroom encouraging folks to act on those same type behaviors,” Weekes told the court. "If I could take your pain away or carry your pain for you just for five minutes so that you could breathe, I would," she said. Cruz will spend weeks undergoing physical and mental examinations, Florida criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson has told CNN.
Aspects of Cruz’s life were factors in the jury's decision
In the reading of the verdict sheets for the 17 counts of murder that stretched about an hour, it could be difficult for observers to discern immediately what the jury had decided. Unanimity among the 12 jurors is required to impose the death penalty. She asked why the shooter's massacre that left 17 dead and inflicted trauma on the community does not deserve the death penalty.
Petty, who serves on the state State Board of Education, was also critical of the shooter's defense. "The lack of empathy, and humanity shown to our families by this defense team — it's indefensible," he said. Feel the warm sea breeze on your face as you embark on a luxurious catamaran cruise from Bimini. Get into the party spirit with an ice-cold rum punch and, if the mood takes you, dance on deck to the sounds of live music as you sail the island’s beautiful coastline. Relax on the powdery white sand of Bimini’s gorgeous Paradise Beach, or get closer to marine life in the warm, turquoise waters around the islands.
The incident is the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history. The shooting came at a period of heightened public support for gun control that followed mass shootings in Paradise, Nevada, and in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in October and November 2017. Fred Guttenberg, father of 14-year-old Parkland school shooting victim Jaime, called on Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes to resign on Wednesday.
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