• Nikolas Cruz is suspected of murdering 17 people at his former high school in Parkland, Florida.
• He has previously pled guilty to 17 counts of murder in the first degree.
• The jury must reach a unanimous verdict in order to impose the death penalty; life without parole is an alternative.

MIAMI: A young man who gunned down 17 people at his old high school in Parkland, Florida, goes on trial Monday, and jurors are expected to condemn him to death or life in prison.

On Valentine’s Day of 2018, a student named Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School armed with an AR-15 assault weapon and killed 17 people.

At the time, Cruz was 19 years old; he has since pled guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

His punishment will be decided at the trial. Without a unanimous decision, Cruz will be sent to prison for life without the chance of getting out.

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The shooting in Florida shocked a country that was used to gun violence and led students from the school where it happened to push for stricter gun control laws.

In 2018, Parkland survivors organised the “March for Our Lives” demonstration, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to Washington, DC.

Last month, the group staged protests after two mass shootings: one at a Texas elementary school that murdered 19 children and two teachers and another at a New York grocery that killed 10 black people.

These shootings bolstered support for the first meaningful federal gun safety legislation in decades.

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