by Ben Whedon
Nikolas Cruz, the gunman in the deadly Parkland school shooting, received a life sentence on Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
A jury previously declined to recommend the death penalty for Cruz, instead proposing a life sentence with no parole, to which the judge on Wednesday sentenced him, per CNN.
Cruz had pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and a further 17 counts of attempted murder in connection with the deadly shooting. A total of 14 students and three faculty members died during his rampage through Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Some of the victims’ parents were dissatisfied with the sentence, observing that Florida allows the death penalty.
“It is heartbreaking how any person who heard and saw all this did not give this killer the worst punishment possible,” said Annika Dworet on Wednesday, whose son Nicholas Dworet died at Cruz’s hands, CNN reported. “As we all know, the worst punishment in the state of Florida is the death penalty. How much worse would the crime have to be to warrant the death penalty?”
The sentencing comes nearly four years after Cruz’s lethal rampage. The trial had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ben Whedon is the night editor for the Just the News. He came to the company from Breitbart News and is a graduate of Washington and Lee University.
