After a Florida jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz, 24, be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Parkland school shooting, Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set the sentencing date for Nov. 1.
The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. ET. Victims and family members are expected to speak before the sentence is delivered.
Under Florida law, Judge Scherer cannot depart from the jury’s recommendation of life.
Cruz was tried for months for the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, including 14 students and three school staff members. He had pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence the gunman, now 24, to death, arguing in part his crime was especially heinous or cruel. But without the unanimous jury recommendation required under Florida law, Cruz’s sentence defaults to life, which the gunman’s defense attorneys had argued for, contending Cruz suffered throughout his life from mental disorders and developmental delays.
