Sentencing for Parkland shooter begins, death penalty possible

Jury selection began Monday decide whether or not the 19-year-old gunman in the 2018 high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, will face the death penalty.

Nikolas Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty in Oct. 2021 to murdering 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as well as the attempted murder of 17 others. Florida law requires Cruz to face a separate trial to determine whether he is sentenced to death or given life in prison with no possibility of parole, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in this sentencing phase, emphasizing his methodical planning and cruelty in carrying out the shooting.

The final panel of 12 jurors must unanimously agree Cruz deserves the death penalty, or else he will be sentenced to life in prison.

Cruz, a former student at Stoneman Douglas, snuck into his former school with a bag containing a AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and ammunition. He set off the fire alarm and opened fire at students evacuating their classrooms until his rifle jammed, when he fled and was arrested.

Attorneys for Cruz plan to argue that their client suffered from prenatal alcohol exposure and other “cognitive deficits,” which makes him less morally culpable, according to the WSJ, citing court filings.

This is a rare instance that a mass shooter is alive to face sentencing, as many have either killed themselves, like the Columbine shooters did, or been killed by police.

Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina died in the attack, told Fox News that the trial “has been a long time coming.”