Parkland trial: Dad feels 'failed' by jury that sentenced gunman to life

Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son, Joaquin, was among the victims, told ABC News Live he had hoped for the death penalty.

"Even the death penalty was not enough for me," he said. "The way that Joaquin died ... the amount of suffering and pain, the shooter will have never received that punishment."

"But now I have to deal with the fact that this guy ... is going to have a chance to have a hobby, and enjoy three meals and, you know, read every single day. I don't like that. I hope that justice appears in any way at some point."

Oliver chose not to attend the trial alongside his wife. He has not decided if he'll go to court on Nov. 1 when victims are given the opportunity to read statements.

"I might need to do that, but I don't know," he said. "I don't want to spend more time thinking about this horrendous person, this monster."

Oliver wrote on Twitter that the sentence sends a bad message to killers.

"It's a very bad precedent for the whole nation," he added to ABC News.

His wife, Patricia Oliver, told ABC News she feels enraged, and said her son did not get justice.

To jury members who voted against the death penalty, she said, "They have to live with that in their conscience. Life is about karma. They will remember what they did when the time comes."

Chen Wang, cousin of 15-year-old victim Peter Wang, said her aunt, Peter’s mother, suffers from PTSD and “has changed forever.”

"She cannot function normally. She cannot sleep,” she said.

Victims’ families “are suffering,” she said, and “this result [from the jury] makes them suffer even more.”

"We have been quiet. We've been trying to follow, believing the system would help us, but it didn't today," she said.

Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor said that during the trial prosecutors didn't shy "away from telling all of the horror, all of the loss, all of the devastation, all of the pain, all of the facts, all of the truth.”

“We hope that, while there is no such thing as closure, this will bring some measure of finality and justice to this terrible chapter,” Pryor said.

“The parents and families of the schoolchildren and the staff members who were massacred lost so much and our hearts are with them,” Pryor said. “We hope they know that all of us lost 17 wonderful people that day and that our world is a poorer and sadder place without them. To the survivors, please know that you are not forgotten in this and that we respect and salute your courage in all that you have endured.”

Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the massacre, said after court, "I'm not often stunned, but I am stunned by this verdict today."

"I could not be more disappointed," he said.

“I don't know how this jury came to the conclusions that they did," he said.

“This decision today only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted,” he said.

Guttenberg said he thinks the next mass shooter is planning his attack now, and "that person now believes that they can get away with it."

“There are 17 victims that did not receive justice today,” Guttenberg said. “This jury failed our families today. But I will tell you: The monster is gonna go to prison, and in prison, I hope and pray, he receives the kind of mercy from prisoners that he showed to my daughter and the 16 others. … He will die in prison, and I will be waiting to read that news on that.”