The Parkland school shooter has been sentenced to life in prison.

 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Wednesday, after the families of his 17 victims spent two days berating him as evil, a coward, a monster, and a subhuman who deserved a painful death.

Cruz, shackled and dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, showed no emotion as Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer handed down 34 consecutive life sentences, one for each of the 17 people killed and injured in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale.

The judge's voice broke as she read the first sentences, but as she moved down the list, she gained strength and volume. Scherer had no other option when it came to sentencing Cruz; the jury in his three-month penalty trial voted 9-3 on Oct. 13 to sentence him to death, but Florida law requires that sentence to be imposed unanimously.

Scherer made no comments about Cruz that were not legally required. Instead, the judge praised the victims' families and the injured, describing them as "strong, graceful, and patient."

"I know you'll be fine because you have each other," Scherer said.

As she spoke, some of the victims' parents and other family members sobbed. One father muttered "Good riddance" as she finished and Cruz was led from the courtroom. They then formed groups and hugged each other.

Cruz, a former Stoneman Douglas student, pleaded guilty to the shooting last year after stalking a three-story classroom building for seven minutes and firing 140 shots with a semi-automatic rifle. He will be transferred to the Florida prison system's processing centre near Miami within days before being assigned to a maximum-security facility. Experts believe he will be placed in protective custody, possibly for years, before being released into the general population of the prison.

The sentencing came after families and injured people verbally thrashed Cruz for two days while mourning their loved ones. Many people wished him a painful death and bemoaned the fact that he could not be sentenced to death. Others said they would try not to think of him after leaving court on Wednesday.

"Real justice would be served if each family here was given a bullet and your AR-15, and we got to pick straws and each of us got to shoot one at a time at you, making sure you felt every bit of it," Linda Beigel Schulman said. Scott Beigel, a teacher, was shot in the back as he led students to safety in his classroom.

She warned him that his terror would grow "until the last family member who drew the last straw had the privilege of ensuring that they killed you."

Fred Guttenberg testified in court that he finally watched the security video of the shooting last week, witnessing his 14-year-old daughter Jaime get to within one step of a stairwell door and safety when Cruz's bullet struck her in the spine.

"I saw you enjoying it," he said to Cruz. He then went to Jaime's grave and asked her for advice, he said.

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