This week, a jury recommended life in prison for Nikolas Cruz, who perpetrated the school shooting on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The shooting resulted in the untimely death of 17 people. Leading up to the moment of the final verdict, calls for the death penalty intensified, and those closely watching the coverage were soon disappointed in the verdict.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has responded to the Parkland shooting verdict, calling it "a miscarriage of justice."
During a press conference, Governor DeSantis expressed his disapproval of the verdict.
The Florida Governor expressed that he is "disappointed" in both the ruling and how long it took to reach a ruling, citing that the legal process has taken longer than it should've taken to convict Cruz.
Governor DeSantis explained that when you have "a case where you're massacring those students with premeditation and utter disregard for basic humanity... you deserve the death penalty."
"The jurors came back and apparently it was 11 to 1 with 1 holdout refusing to authorize the ultimate punishment, and that means that this killer is gonna end up getting a same sentence as people who committed bad acts but acts that did not rise to this level," DeSantis added, affirming that he doesn't "think anything else is appropriate except a capital sentence in this case."
Discussing how long it's taken to reach a verdict, DeSantis criticized the legal system, saying that "we're 4 and a half years after these killings, and we're just now getting this?" Instead, he said that Cruz could've "been executed in 6 months. He's guilty, everybody knew that from the beginning, and yet it takes years and years in this legal system that is not serving the interests of victims."
Sharing his statement on social media, he further criticized the ruling, saying that the fact "the jury had a single holdout refuse to authorize a capital sentence represents a miscarriage of justice."
The only appropriate sentence for the massacre of 17 innocent people is the death penalty. That the jury had a single holdout refuse to authorize a capital sentence represents a miscarriage of justice.
My prayers are with the Parkland families. pic.twitter.com/f2M0Fw1SLo
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 13, 2022
