Florida law requires a unanimous jury to impose the death penalty, which prosecutors had sought for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz.
A judge on Wednesday will formally sentence 24-year-old Nikolas Cruz to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—but families of the school shooting victims have been angered by a jury’s decision and a Florida law that will prevent Cruz from receiving the death penalty.
A Florida jury last month recommended Cruz—who killed 14 students and three staff members with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle in February 2018—be sentenced to life in prison after a grueling three-month trial in which prosecutors sought the death penalty for Cruz.
The jury found that Cruz knowingly created a “great risk of death to many persons,” calling the shooting “especially heinous and cruel,” but three of 12 jurors voted against the death penalty.
After being one of the only states to allow juries to impose a death penalty with a simple 7-to-5 majority, in 2017, former Florida Gov.
