The parents of one victim in the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school slammed the jury for recommending to spare the shooter from the death penalty, opting instead to recommend life in prison.
“We came here today, and it wasn’t even a doubt in my mind that this would be the death penalty,” Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, said after the jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz, spend the rest of his life behind bars. “I’m beyond disgusted of what happened, what occurred. And again, what is the death penalty for if not for the murder and killing of 17 people?”
The Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 14 students and three teachers dead. Florida law states that a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count, but the jury was unable to reach an unanimous finding in favor of the death penalty.
Alyssa’s father, Ilan Marc Alhadeff, also condemned the ruling, saying the jury’s recommendation “set a precedent.”
“I’m disgusted with our legal system. I’m disgusted with those jurors. I’m disgusted with the system,” Alhadeff said. “That you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not get the death penalty. What do we have the death penalty for? What is the purpose of it? You set a precedent today. You set a precedent for the next mass killing. And nothing happens to you. You’ll get life in jail. I’m sorry, that is not OK. As a country we need to stand up and say that’s not OK. I pray that that animal suffers every day of his life in jail. And he should have a short life.”
These parents are not the only ones who expressed disdain for the jury’s decision. Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Jaime, said, “I don’t know how this jury came to the conclusions that they did today, but 17 families did not receive justice.”
In addition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated that he believed that Cruz deserved the death penalty.
“I think that if you have a death penalty at all, that that is a case, where you’re massacring those students, with premeditation and utter disregard for humanity, that you deserve the death penalty,” DeSantis said during a press conference. “I just don’t think anything else is appropriate except a capital sentence in this case. And so, I was very disappointed to see that.”
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