Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was officially sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday for killing 17 people in 2018. Last month, a jury recommended he be spared the death penalty, angering the families of Cruz’s victims. In Florida, a jury must unanimously vote for the death penalty; three jurors voted instead to sentence the 24-year-old to life in prison. “It is heartbreaking how any person who heard and saw all this did not give this killer the worst punishment possible,” Annika Dworet, the mother of 17-year-old victim Nicholas Dworet, said. “How much worse would the crime have to be to warrant the death penalty?” Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. He will likely be held in custody before moving to the Florida Department of Corrections, where he will reportedly undergo physical and mental exams.
