Gunman gets life in prison for 2018 Parkland massacre, deadliest US school shooting

A Florida jury has announced a life in prison without parole for the gunman responsible for the 2018 Parkland massacre – the deadliest US school shooting to reach a jury trial in the US.

A 12-member jury has concluded the deliberations on the fate of the gunman responsible for a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer delivered the final verdict on Thursday (13 October), reports BBC. 

Nikolas Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty in October last year to 17 counts of murder and attempted murder in the 14 February 2018 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The jury decided that the 24-year-old Parkland school shooter will be spared the death penalty and will instead spend the rest of his life behind bars. For the culprit to have received the death penalty, all 12 jurors would have had to have voted on each count unanimously.

The decision marks a blow for prosecutors, who had sought to prove that the crime was "cold, calculated and premeditated" and met the state's definition of "aggravating factors" that warrant the death penalty.

Seventeen people were killed - and another 17 wounded - during the attack which began at 2:19pm when Nikolas Cruz - who had been expelled the previous year for disciplinary reasons - arrived on campus armed with a legally-purchased AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and shot dead 14 students and three staff members.

The entire murder spree took about six minutes, with all the victims shot within a four-minute time span.

The gunman managed to leave the school by blending in with students, and lingered in the area after reportedly buying a soft drink at a nearby mall.

Soon after, at about 15:40, Cruz was arrested by police officers about two miles (3.2km) away from the school.

Earlier today, the jury deliberated for about a day. At one point they asked for transcripts from expert witnesses and to see the AR-15 rifle used in the attack - which was brought over by the sheriff's office this morning. They also wanted to see one of the ammunition magazines, which had a swastika etched on to its side.

During the trial, which began in July, prosecutors argued the gunman planned a "systematic massacre" of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland, and that he should be sentenced to death, reports BBC.

They said he had conducted internet research before the attack and posted online comments in which he vowed to show "no mercy".

The gunman's defence lawyer Melisa McNeill has argued that her client was brain damaged in the womb by his mother's alcohol and substance abuse during pregnancy. The defence team sought to portray the admitted murderer as a deeply troubled young man whose brain was "irretrievably broken" due to a difficult childhood.

During the emotional trial, prosecutors sought to show that the shooting had been "cold, calculated and premeditated". They argued that the gunman deserved to to be sentenced to death for the "goal-directed, planned, systematic murder - mass murder - of 14 students, an athletic director, a teacher and a coach".

Jurors were also shown gruesome video evidence from the crime scene, as well as video of the attacker calmly ordering a drink from a nearby shop minutes after the massacre.

At one point, jurors were taken to the preserved crime scene where school supplies and Valentine's Day cards were still scattered.

The death penalty exists in 27 US states, including Florida. The annual number of executions in the US, however, has fallen over the decades, from 98 in 1999 to just 11 in 2021.

Under Florida state law, prosecutors can seek the death penalty in cases when the accused has been convicted of first-degree murder with aggravating factors - murders that are "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel", creating "a risk of death to many persons" and "cold, calculated" murders that were premeditated.

The last person to be executed in Florida was 57-year-old Gary Ray Bowles in 2019. He was put to death for the murder of six men in 1994.