The jury had two main options: rule that Nikolas Cruz should be sentenced to death, which was the prosecution’s desired outcome, or follow the advice of the defense and sentence Cruz to life in prison (per NPR). On the prosecution’s part, lawyers were keen to point out the viciousness of Cruz’s crimes and the fact that he circled back to injured victims, shooting them multiple times to ensure they died. According to USA Today, they cited a personality disorder as the cause of his actions. However, defense lawyers argued that it was actually fetal alcohol spectrum disorder that had affected Cruz’s decision-making and led him to go on his massacre. Per NPR, they pointed out that his biological mother drank and did drugs when she was pregnant with him and called Cruz a “brain-damaged, broken, mentally-ill person.”
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The trial lasted three months and included many witnesses’ testimony. Jurors even visited the sealed site of the shooting, where evidence of Cruz’s crime — including blood and bullet holes — remained untouched, per CNN. In the end, after seven hours of deliberation, the jury came back with their recommendation: Nikolas Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but he should not be put to death.
