As Judge Elizabeth Scherer read the details of the verdict against Nikolas Cruz, the now-convicted murderer of 14 students and 3 teachers at a Parkland, Florida, high school, the faces of the relatives of the deceased were contracting.
Some grabbed each other, others did not hide their tears, many shook their heads “no” and some were held by others wanting to stand up and protest loudly.
“This is crazy, crazy. Everybody knows. We want justice,” said Chen Wang, cousin of Peter Wang, who lost his life in the Marjoriy Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, where Cruz entered armed with an AR-15 automatic rifle fired at close range and finishing off survivors.
“We are beyond disappointed with today’s result. This should have been the death penalty, 100%. … I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. … I can not understand. I just don’t understand,” added Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa, was also killed.
The key to all this collective displeasure was that the jury, instead of asking for the death penalty, as expected, decided on life imprisonment.
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous jury vote. In the verdict papers delivered to the judge neither the number of jurors nor their names are mentioned. In the end, the jury did not agree that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones. Cruz will get life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury found that there were aggravating factors in seeking the death penalty for each victim; he also agreed that the killings were “especially heinous or cruel.” But one or more of its members left because of extenuating circumstances, such as the particularly traumatizing days of their childhood. “Now every jury is going to lean on a criminal’s past. If his childhood was good or not… I don’t know what to say, ”emphasized George Sanders, the father of Jessica, another of the murdered.
During closing arguments Tuesday, public defender Melissa McNeil argued to the jury that “they now know that Nikolas is a brain-damaged, broken, and mentally ill person through no fault of his own. He was literally poisoned in Branda’s womb.” Brenda Woodward, his biological mother, was presented during the trial as an alcoholic and drug addict during Nikolas’s pregnancy 24 years ago.
By law, the judge cannot change the verdict, but the prosecution requested that the relatives of the deceased be able to give their testimony on the day of the sentence. Judge Scherer scheduled the sentencing hearing for Tuesday, November 1.
According to attorney Lucas Santiesteban, Thursday’s verdict “may be an indicator that public opinion in Florida, a state known for its complacency toward the death penalty, is slowly changing its mind,” he said.
“It is true that there have not been many death sentences, even after an incident in 1997, the electric chair was changed to lethal injection,” Santiesteban said.
Was today’s sentence fair? “It is not up to me to pronounce on justice. But it was surprising, yes, “the lawyer told OnCuba.
