Parkland families outraged as shooter is spared death sentence
Florida officials and family members of the Parkland school shooting victims are expressing outrage and heartbreak after a jury's decision to spare the gunman the death penalty. Seventeen people — 14 students and three staff members — were killed in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
"I feel angry. I feel rage," Patricia Oliver, who lost her 17-year-old son Joaquin in the shooting, told CBS News. "I feel that justice wasn't served."
Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas said three of the 12 jurors voted against the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school who pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder. He will instead receive a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous recommendation from jurors.
Thomas said the jury was divided on factors including the defense's argument that the shooter was mentally ill in part because of his mother's drug and alcohol abuse while she was pregnant.
Thomas told CBS Miami that he did not agree with the outcome.
"It didn't go the way I would've liked, or the way I voted, but that's how the jury system works," he said. "Everybody gets their vote. Everybody gets to decide. We went through all of the evidence, and some of the jurors just felt that was the appropriate sentence."
Families of the victims were stunned by the decision.
"You've sent the message out there to everyone ... you will just get off by pleading that you're insane," said Anne Ramsay, whose daughter Helena was killed in the shooting.
Joaquin Oliver's father watched the proceedings from Tulsa, Oklahoma. His wife said he decided not to come to the trial in person because it would have been too painful. Instead, he is traveling across the country in a school bus embellished with his son's nickname, "Guac," on it to promote the prevention of gun violence.