Parkland, Florida – defendant Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday on account of 17 murders and 17 attempted murders during the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the deadliest High School shooting incident so far.
As per Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer’s statement, the heinous crimes Cruz has conducted and pleaded guilty to result in a mandatory life sentence with no parole.
Last week, Cruz, 23, and his attorneys surprised the court when they revealed their plan to plead guilty to 34 criminal charges.
Moreover, the last week’s hearing also made the defendant plead guilty to four counts that he was charged with after the Broward County Jail guard attack, which happened nine months post the High School shooting attack.
On Wednesday, Cruz apologized and accepted his crimes in court. He said, “I am very sorry for what I did, and I have to live with it every day. I have to live with this every day, and it brings me nightmares that I can’t live with myself sometimes, but I try to push through.”
The just selection will begin on Jan 4 to determine whether the defendant should be given the death penalty or not.
In a statement, the activists’ group March for Our Lives, stood against the gunman, said, “they would never dignify him by referring to his name.”
“A single guilty plea does not bring closure as long as it is still possible for another person anywhere in this country to be murdered by a gun at school, in a place of worship, or their very own home.”
The former student and co-founder of March for Our Lives, David Hogg, said he felt little satisfaction when the gunman was pleaded guilty.
On Wednesday, Hogg stated to MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” “Ultimately there is no closure, in that our classmates are never coming back, our teachers are never coming back,”
“The closest thing to closure that I know many of my classmates and I can even think of is creating a world, a country, in which our children don’t have to be born into a situation where they live in danger of gun violence,” he added.
The court trial has been postponed due to pandemic situations and arguments over evidence and witnesses.
As per Scherer, she hopes to find a jury for the court trial which is set to begin early in 2022 as they will decide the sentence period for the first-degree murder charges.
