Parkland school shooting: Why the gunman was spared the death penalty It was the deadliest mass shooting to reach a jury trial in the US, and on a day that was already high in emotion, many families left the court in Florida on Thursday confused and in tears. "We are just shocked by this result and it is so unjust," Lynn Chen, a cousin of Parkland victim Peter Wang, said. "How can he live another day?" The jury's decision to recommend life in prison and not the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz - who shot dead 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 - sparked an emotional outcry from the victims' relatives who had gathered in the court. "This animal is still going to have life in prison without parole," one mother, Linda Schulman, said. "I hope he has the fear in him every second of his life. Why do we have the death penalty at all?" Parkland teacher Ivy Schamis, who testified at the trial how two pupils in her class died in the attack, told the BBC she was devastated. "It means most of the parents will not outlive this shooter. I've lost all my faith in the justice system after this." Three of the 12 jurors voted to spare the gunman following the sentencing trial. Under Florida law, a unanimous decision is needed in order for someone to be put to death. If a single juror disagrees, then the defendant is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This is what the 24-year-old Parkland gunman now faces. Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told CBS Miami that he did not vote for the life sentence and is "not happy with how [the sentencing] worked out". "It really came down to a specific juror who believed [the gunman] was mentally ill," he said. "She didn't believe that because he's mentally ill he should get the death penalty." "There was one [juror] with a hard no - she couldn't do it," he said. "And there was another two that ended up voting the same way." https://play.acast.com/s/6348f02f60e2d50012d90529 https://play.acast.com/s/6348f0c416634200116f9c24 https://play.acast.com/s/6348f19b0108f100123a8709 https://play.acast.com/s/6348f75d182aa20012a888c3 https://play.acast.com/s/6348f7f560e2d50012d90eb4 https://play.acast.com/s/6348f87116634200116fa55c https://play.acast.com/s/6348fefdff782f00130d59f5 https://play.acast.com/s/6348ff9dff782f00130d5ace https://play.acast.com/s/634905405e66450012706466 https://play.acast.com/s/63491911466ac500125aeb30 https://play.acast.com/s/63491aec95cfb50012b6e2eb https://play.acast.com/s/634921a495729a0012d9b6bf https://play.acast.com/s/6349223902ac4300116ea072 https://play.acast.com/s/634922d5b8565f00114d5581 https://paiza.io/projects/BGhglgLdvF_bEbOgF1XPHw https://pastelink.net/g2ej63yn http://pastebin.falz.net/2434079 https://dev.bukkit.org/paste/47388f77 https://www.zupyak.com/p/3316457/t/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared-the-death-penalty https://www.onfeetnation.com/photo/albums/eryterturt https://muckrack.com/mariane-haley204/bio http://www.shadowville.com/board/general-discussions/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman#p560741 https://www.pastery.net/ubfrvs/ https://ctxt.io/2/AAAQRkgxFw https://stockhouse.com/blogs/sdtewryeru https://peacepink.ning.com/photo/fdj7-uvuyaamxw2-1 https://paste.firnsy.com/paste/XVqJtxQQSiq https://pantip.com/topic/41683074 https://webhitlist.com/photo/albums/rurtirity https://paste.awesom.eu/9CUX https://healingxchange.ning.com/photo/albums/rujrtiuri https://theamberpost.com/post/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared-the-death-penalty https://p.teknik.io/TJI3X http://ben-kiki.org/ypaste/data/59132/index.html https://www.dancehalldatabase.com/forum/Dancehall-Reggae/Parkland-school-shooting/fe9de7041388eb8ed9ed759a00b3809c/38884 https://bitbin.it/qfQ3iqdT/ http://beterhbo.ning.com/photo/albums/drgerwtyr https://www.vingle.net/posts/4855935 http://zacriley.ning.com/photo/albums/htfgkrt https://ideone.com/JNqvY1 https://theprose.com/post/526206/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared-the-death-penalty https://stockhouse.com/blogs/dfjedrtuerye https://www.rw-forum.com/topic/430228-parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared/ https://backlinktool.io/p/dtMkYWW0sv35BPTuHTeg.html https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/ryheru https://ide.geeksforgeeks.org/86027652-0a24-4d96-a97c-305ab68c6f77 https://www.click4r.com/posts/g/6419751/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman https://yamcode.com/2y4hk9b6jp https://techplanet.today/post/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared http://allabouturanch.com/photo/albums/dfhertdujrt https://issuu.com/marianehaley2 https://www.techrum.vn/threads/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was.664706/ https://paste.toolforge.org/view/e1bf9836 https://party.biz/blogs/94793/173141/parkland-school-shooting https://backlinktool.io/p/1pDEGJA0JQEZwOLCWn4o.html https://pasteio.com/xW3QwUEwQZVw https://justpaste.it/7hjlr https://vocus.cc/article/63494fd1fd897800010e5a2f https://tech.io/snippet/wRiNAWm https://dailybusinesspost.com/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman-was-spared-the-death-penalty/ https://kukooo.com/gjhrtueryuey/ http://th.cpp.sh/ https://dotnetfiddle.net/xbzVZU https://www.cakeresume.com/portfolios/parkland-school-shooting https://jsitor.com/2gvGNAeyd http://playit4ward-sanantonio.ning.com/photo/albums/safwsey https://paste.rs/uvL https://blogmypost.com/parkland-school-shooting-why-the-gunman/ https://jsfiddle.net/Lhasv1rg/ https://paste.cutelyst.org/LGuffJ91R The jury - which consisted of seven men and five women - did find there were aggravating factors which warranted the use of the death penalty. Under Florida law, there are 16 aggravating factors which can be used to justify imposing a death sentence. For example, the murders must be deemed particularly cruel or be committed in a cold, premeditated manner. At least one of these factors must be proved beyond reasonable doubt for a defendant to be executed. During the course of the three-month sentencing trial, prosecutors sought to convince the jury that aggravating factors clearly applied in this case. "It was calculated. It was purposeful. And it was a systematic massacre," lead prosecutor Michael Satz said during his closing argument. But the three jurors who voted not to impose the death penalty did so because of mitigating circumstances that had been consistently argued by the defence. They concluded that these outweighed the aggravating factors offered by the prosecution. The most prominent mitigating factor - and one explored in detail by defence lawyers during the trial - was that the gunman's mother's heavy alcohol consumption and smoking during pregnancy had left him with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which they said drove his violent behaviour. The lead defence lawyer, Melisa McNeill, told the court: "He was doomed in the womb. And in a civilised society, do we kill brain damaged, mentally ill, broken people?" Mr Satz pushed back on this in the trial's latter stages as it became a focus of the proceedings. "Whether or not his mother smoked during pregnancy did not turn [him] into a mass murderer," he said. But ultimately the jury, after sifting through harrowing evidence and deliberating for seven hours, could not reach the necessary unanimous verdict on the death penalty. "That's how the jury system works. Some of the jurors just felt that was the appropriate sentence," Mr Thomas, the jury foreman, said. "It's a moral decision. Everybody has a right to their opinion."