The Parkland Shooting Trial.

News | Nithya Kunta | October 17th, 2022.

One year ago, Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering 14 Stoneman Douglas students and 2 staff members on February 14, 2018. This past week, Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Cruz’s trial lasted 3 months and covered prosecution videos, photos, and testimonies about the murders, as well as defense testimonies about Cruz’s fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and consequential mental health issues. This is the only US mass shooter who killed as many or more people than Cruz that has been to trial.

Before 2016, Florida law allowed trial judges to impose a death sentence when there was a majority in the jury. This law was altered after an 8-1 vote, after which the Supreme Court decided that the judge had more weight than the jurors in the decision. Now, if the decision is not unanimous, as in the case of Cruz’s trial, the punishment is an automatic life sentence without parole. This law is implemented in 27 states.

Reactions to the verdict of the trial are varied. Family members of the victims are enraged and believe justice has not been served, and Governor DeSantis called the decision a “miscarriage of justice”. There was heavy tension in the courtroom between jurors as well. The Stoneman Douglas families and head of the state’s prosecutors association want to change Florida’s unanimous decision law, and the President of Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association believes the legislature will consider changing the law next year. However, others argue that DeSantis and the legislature will not actually follow through because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2016.