Florida jury recommends Parkland shooter serve life in prison

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz sits in a Florida courtroom in October 2021. A judge is scheduled to make the final decision about his sentence on November 1 [File: Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP Pool]

A Florida jury has recommended that a gunman who killed 17 people in a 2018 school shooting be spared the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Nikolas Cruz, now 24, pleaded guilty late last year to premeditated murder for the deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. His sentencing trial lasted for more than three months as the jury heard arguments for and against recommending the death penalty.