Death penalty 'appropriate sentence' for Parkland shooter

Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at a Florida high school on Valentine's Day in 2018, planned and carried out a "systematic massacre," a prosecutor arguing for the death penalty said.

"What he wanted to do, what his plan was, and what he did, was to murder children at school and their caretakers," assistant state attorney Michael Satz said in closing arguments at the sentencing trial of the 24-year-old Cruz.

"It was calculated. It was purposeful. And it was a systematic massacre," Satz said.

"And he picked Valentine's Day to do it," he told a hushed courtroom packed with family members of those gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a town north of Miami.

Satz recounted the day of the massacre in harrowing detail as Cruz stared down at the table in front of him with his head in his hand.

The 80-year-old Satz, who came out of retirement to try the case, ended his closing arguments by reciting the names of the 17 people who died.

"The appropriate sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty," he said.

Cruz pleaded guilty to the shooting and it is up to the jury to decide whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison.

If the jury of seven men and five women does not vote unanimously for capital punishment, Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

The jury is to begin deliberations and will be sequestered until they reach a decision.