Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) delivered a clear message to the perpetrator of the deadliest high school shooting in the United States after the jury recommended life imprisonment and not the death penalty.
“I just want to say one thing about this verdict,” DeSantis said during a press conference Thursday. “If you have a death penalty at all, that that is a case, where you’re massacring those students — with premeditation and utter disregard for basic humanity—that you deserve the death penalty”
‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?’: PARKLAND FAMILIES DEVASTATED JURY SPARED SHOOTER’S LIFE
“I was very disappointed to see that,” he said, adding that the decision “stings.”
More than four years after the fact on Thursday, a 12-person jury delivered its recommendation in Nikolas Cruz’s case. Cruz previously pleaded guilty to 17 murder counts and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for perpetrating the 2018 shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“Apparently it was 11-1, with one holdout refusing to authorize the ultimate punishment,” the governor said. “This killer is going to end up getting the same sentence as people who’ve committed bad acts, but acts that did not rise to this level.”
He reiterated that he believes no other sentence is acceptable.
DeSantis further expressed his frustration with the slow-moving legal system.
“You know they used to do this, he would’ve been executed in six months,” he claimed. “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.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
He then touted that Florida has since done “more on school security than any state in the country,” referencing his involvement in Broward county following the deadly shooting.
