FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After a heart-wrenching three months reliving one of America’s most heinous crimes, a jury Thursday showed mercy to the Parkland school shooter, rejecting a death sentence and recommending he spend life in prison.
The recommendation is binding, and he will be formally sentenced Nov. 1. Broward Judge Elizabeth Scherer does not have the discretion to impose the death penalty, now that at least one juror found that the life of school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be spared. The jury deliberated for just seven hours.
The decision unleashed a torrent of emotion in the packed courtroom, where many victims’ family members have sat riveted — and sometimes in tears — since the beginning of the sentencing trial.
