Gunman in the deadliest US school shooting avoids the death penalty. Here's why

Florida is among the 15 US states with highest death penalty numbers. However, on Thursday (October 13, 2022), the jury in Florida decided that Nikolas Cruz, who killed 14 students and 3 staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland in 2018 should not be given the death penalty. He is now facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

This decision comes after a month-long trial to decide Nikolas Cruz's punishment.  

Jurors prepared to deliberate on whether Nikolas Cruz, should be sentenced to death. Cruz pled guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder in one of America’s deadliest school shootings, in Parkland, Florida https://t.co/eQB4G7NrDo pic.twitter.com/rxqYIwHvVW

— Reuters (@Reuters) October 12, 2022

This is, however, not an official sentence. Judge Elizabeth Scherer is still expected to issue the gunman's formal sentence on November 1, 2022, but according to Florida's law, she cannot depart from the jury's recommendation of life imprisonment. 

How did the victim's families react? With everyone expecting Cruz to get the death penalty, the decision came as a shock to the families of the victims, and when they spoke in front of the media, they expressed their dissatisfaction, reported CNN. 

• The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff said they were "disgusted" with the decision to recommend life in prison. Ilan Alhadeff said his family was "beyond disappointed with the outcome."
• Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, said the Parkland massacre victims' families were robbed of justice.
• The family of another 15-year-old victim Peter Wang said they were shocked at the decision. "This monster killed 17 people, how can he live another day?" Wang's cousin Lin Chen said.
• "If not now the death penalty, then when?" said Patricia Oliver, whose son was killed in the shooting.

Twitter users were also not happy with the decision and  the reactions followed: 

The fact some juror says no to Nikolas Cruz Death penalty is wild. theres so many deaths the Judge is literally tripping over her words because shes been reading so many murder verdicts. The yays out way the nays. Death it is to you. Democracy. #Parkland

— Austin (@shanks_austin) October 13, 2022

Imagine killing 17 kids, premeditated, in FLORIDA, saying you enjoy it, and NOT getting the death penalty.

Nikolas Cruz is exceedingly lucky at life right now.

— Chanel No.4 (@Crufix) October 13, 2022

Watching the verdict in the penalty phase of the Parkland shooter. My blood is boiling and my heart is breaking for the victims and their families. Nikolas Cruz deserves to suffer unimaginable pain for the rest of time.

— David P. Samson (@DavidPSamson) October 13, 2022

Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“This should have been the death penalty, 100%,” said Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter was killed in the shooting. https://t.co/fO3VlzaebK pic.twitter.com/y6XqTVT39m

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 13, 2022

If Nikolas Cruz doesn’t deserve the death sentence for Parkland, then who the fuck does? What a joke!

— - CoLiN- (@o_Colin_o) October 13, 2022

Am I the only one here who doesn’t hear how Nikolas Cruz has got the death penalty? To me, it sounds like life imprisonment. #nikolascruz

— B (@slytherinruni) October 13, 2022

If Nikolas Cruz does not deserve the death penalty no one does.

— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) October 13, 2022

What made the jury change its mind? For a criminal to be executed, the jury must unanimously take the decision, which was not the case here.

State's argument:

• The prosecutor argued that the killings were especially heinous and calculated.
• There was proof that the shooter had spent months looking up information about mass shootings online and had posted on social media about his desire to "kill people" in the process.

Defender's argument:

• The public defenders, on the other hand, pleaded with the jury to spare his life due to his troubled past, which included being raised in a dysfunctional family and having significant mental and developmental problems.

Since the decision wasn't unanimously taken, Cruz avoided death penalty which indicates that the defender's argument might have factored into the mind of some jury members who made the decision. 

Recap 2018: On February 14, 2018, a 19-year-old man, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami suburban town of Parkland, Florida, murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others. He was arrested an hour later, when he fled the scene on foot, blending in with other students.

• According to experts, Cruz's act was a calculated one with months of research and patterned "disturbing behaviour." 
• Cruz was a former student at Stoneman, having been expelled for disciplinary reasons in 2017. 

On October 20, 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to all charges and apologised for his actions. However, the trial was delayed numerous times due to Covid-19 and finally, the jury came to a decision on October 14, 2022 to not to give him capital punishment but rather gave him life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.