Jury recommends Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz get life in prison, not death penalty
A Broward County, Florida jury recommended Wednesday that Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz should get life in prison but not the death penalty in the deaths of 17 people. (WSVN)
Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole – but will not get the death penalty, after a Broward County, Florida, jury hand down their recommendation on Thursday. But how does the sentencing decision compare to that of other school shooters?
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 — a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine's Day. Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally sentence him on Nov. 1.
Cruz’s massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire, according to the Associated Press.
That includes Uvalde, Texas, 18-year-old suspected gunman Salvador Ramos, who allegedly shot and killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School on May 24 before he was killed by a Border Patrol tactical unit.
JURY RECOMMENDS PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTER NIKOLAS CRUZ GETS LIFE IN PRISON, NOT DEATH PENALTY
Chief Assistant Public Defender David Wheeler puts his arm around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz as they await a verdict in his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Ethan Crumbley, who at 15 was accused of shooting 11 people, including four fatally at Oxford High School in Michigan last November, is to face trial next year for murder and terrorism charges. The teen’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are charged with involuntary manslaughter.
They’re accused of making a gun accessible to their son and failing to get him help after he showed signs of mental distress. Their trial is set for Oct. 24. The couple’s attorneys deny the allegations.
Privacy barriers and bike racks maintain a perimiter at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School, after a video was released showing the May shooting inside the school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S., July 13, 2022. (REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Beal)
Colorado school shooter Devon Erickson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last year for a 2019 shooting inside Denver-area STEM School Highlands Ranch that left 18-year-old senior Kendrick Castillo — hailed as a hero for thwarting the attack — dead and eight others injured.
Last month, the Kentucky Parole Board denied parole for Michael Carneal, now 39.
This screen shot from a Zoom video hearing shows Michael Carneal on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 at Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, Ky. Carneal killed three students and wounded five more in a school shooting 25 years ago. (Kentucky Parole Board via AP)
Twenty-five years ago, the then 14-year-old said voices in his head told him to steal a neighbor’s pistol and fire it into a prayer circle in the crowded lobby of Heath High School in December 1997.
Those killed were 14-year-old Nicole Hadley, 17-year-old Jessica James, and 15-year-old Kayce Steger. Five more were injured, including Missy Jenkins Smith, who was paralyzed and uses a wheelchair.
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The bloodshed came just 17 months before Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher and injured 21 more at Columbine High School in Colorado.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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