Life imprisonment. It is the sentence imposed on Nikolas Cruz, the young man who in 2018 killed 14 students and three teachers in a high school in Parkland, Florida.

A sentence welcomed with anger, tears and disappointment by the families of the victims of the massacre, who hoped that the jury would condemn the killer to the maximum required by US law, or the death penalty.

For the death penalty, however, unanimity was required but evidently one or more jurors considered that the extenuating circumstances - including being the neglected child of a woman who abused alcohol and drugs since pregnancy - prevail over aggravating circumstances such as premeditation and cruelty of the massacre.

"There are a lot of people who drink and have children who don't become killers," noted the mother of one of the victims.

"I am disgusted by our legal system, by our jurors, why then do we have the death penalty? This creates a precedent for the next mass shooting," echoed the father of Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the girls killed by Cruz.

(Unioneonline / lf)

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