In 2018, Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 14 teenagers and three adults at a Florida school. After the trial, the verdict is clear: no death penalty, but life imprisonment.
Parkland’s perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, will not be sentenced to death.
(dpa) More than four years after the massacre at a school in the American city of Parkland, the perpetrator has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge at the competent court in the state of Florida officially announced the sentence on Wednesday. The jury in the trial had recommended life imprisonment for the attacker in mid-October – and not the death penalty, as demanded by prosecutors and the victims’ families. The judge was bound by the jury’s decision.
On February 14, 2018, the then 19-year-old shooter shot 14 teenagers and three adults at the school in Parkland with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle and injured other people. After the crime, surviving students started protests against gun violence and for stricter gun laws in the United States, which grew into a nationwide movement. Guns remain readily available in America, and school shootings are common.
Before the sentencing, relatives of the dead had been given the opportunity to approach the perpetrator themselves in the courtroom. In the emotional performances, they spoke about their grief, but also expressed anger, disappointment and incomprehension that the perpetrator was not sentenced to death.