While the sentencing verdict was read aloud, Cruz stared down at a table in a grey and black sweater as the faces of victims' family members went blank behind him. Some family members in the court gallery were holding back tears, while others remained stoic and barely moved.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed by Cruz, said that "seventeen families have been failed."
"I'm going to go to the cemetery, and I'm going to tell my daughter what happened today. And I'm going to tell her I love her and always will," Guttenberg said.
Guttenberg vowed to maintain his dedication to advocating for gun law reform across the U.S.
Ryan Petty, father of fatally wounded student Alaina, said he could not understand the reasoning of the jury members who opposed a death sentence, in light of "the viciousness of what was done" at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
"We came here seeking justice, and unfortunately, we didn't get it today," Petty said.
The death penalty for Cruz would have required a unanimous vote by the jury. Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told CBS Miami that three of the twelve jurors decided in favor of a life sentence. He said it was painful to watch families reacting to the verdict.
"It didn't go the way I would have liked, the way I voted, but that's the way the jury system works," Thomas said.
As the jury's decision to hand down a life sentence unfolded in court, multiple news outlets flooded social media with incorrect reports about a death sentence. A New York Post social media line prominently stated "Nikolas Cruz sentenced to death for Parkland massacre."
The confusion may have arisen from the format of the jury's pronouncement. The jury was tasked with weighing aggravating factors like premeditation against mitigating factors like Cruz's alleged mental disorders. The deciding moments were when the jury announced, count by count, that the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating ones — a nuance that may have been lost in the media fray.
Reuters, among other outlets, had to issue a correction on the sentencing verdict.
Nikolas Cruz at the defense table on October 13, 2022, prior to the issuance of the verdict in his sentencing hearing.
Getty Images pool photo
Last year, he pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder.
During the sentencing proceedings, the jury heard weeks of emotional testimony from victims' families, survivors and school staff before deciding on a life sentence for Cruz.
Dara Hass, who lost several students in the massacre, testified that her English students were working quietly on an assignment inside her classroom in the freshman building when they suddenly heard a loud popping noise.
Hass thought it was a drill at first but quickly realized the horror that was taking place. “One of the students was injured,” she explained, in tears. “He didn’t have time to make it out of his desk.”
The victim was 14-year-old Alex Schachter, who was killed in the shooting. Hass identified the other fatally wounded victims in her classroom as Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff.
Lead public defender Melisa McNeill argued in court that Cruz suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder due to his biological mother’s heavy drinking while she was pregnant with him. McNeill said that the condition led to developmental problems –– including violent behavior –– that were misdiagnosed by experts.
“In a civilized, humane society, do we kill brain-damaged, mentally ill, broken people?” McNeill asked.
Lead prosecutor Michael Satz countered that Cruz was a "coldhearted sociopath" who carried out the February 2018 massacre to gain notoriety. Satz said Cruz methodically planned his actions and researched previous school shootings before carrying out the attack.
In a video he recorded before the massacre, Cruz can be seen nonchalantly discussing his plans to shoot up a school.
"My name's Nick and I'm going to be the next school shooter of 2018. My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15," he says.
In the two years preceding the attack, at least two reports had been submitted to local police, warning that Cruz was collecting guns and plotting a mass shooting. A tip had also been submitted to the FBI about Cruz's "gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts," as the FBI phrased it.
Cruz was never arrested or charged in connection with those threats, nor was he legally prevented from amassing his arsenal.
Less than a month after the shooting, the Florida legislature passed comprehensive gun law reform through the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. The measure raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, banned bump stocks, and set up a "red-flag" law, through which courts can prohibit people from possessing firearms if they have made violent threats or are suffering from significant mental illness.
A wave of gun law reform was passed in other states as well in response to the shooting and student protests that took place across the country.
Cruz's formal sentencing is scheduled for November 1. The jury's decision means the death penalty is off the table when presiding Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer holds the hearing.
Among U.S. states, Florida has the fourth highest number of executions since June 29, 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court prompted an overhaul of capital punishment law nationwide under Furman v. Georgia. Florida has executed 99 people since then. (Texas has the highest number of executions by far, having put more than 570 prisoners to death in the last 50 years.)
The last person to have been executed in Florida was Gary Ray Bowles, who went on a killing spree in 1994, murdering six victims over a months-long period. He was put to death by lethal injection in August 2019.
