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.”

Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed, called the jury’s decision a “gut punch.”

“Pressing the barrel of his weapon to my daughter's chest. That doesn't outweigh [that Nikolas Cruz] had a tough upbringing?” Montalto said.

“Society has to really look and reexamine who and what is a victim. Not everyone's a victim. My beautiful Gina. the other sons, daughters, spouses and fathers -- they were the victims here. Our justice system should have been used to punish this shooter to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “Not as an act of revenge, but to protect our nation's schools.”

“I think that it puts all school children in jeopardy. It certainly sends the wrong message,” he continued. “This shooter did not deserve compassion.”

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was killed, tweeted that Nikolas Cruz “got everything he wanted” with the life sentence verdict.

"Prior to the shooting the Parkland murderer said he wanted to kill 20 people. He stopped after killing 17 including my sweet little boy Alex. Afterwards he didn’t want to die,” Schachter tweeted.

Meanwhile, “Our loved ones are in the cemetery.”

Cruz's defense attorneys had urged the jury to sentence him to life in prison. The defense admitted Cruz was responsible for his actions and planned the school shooting, but argued Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays that traced back to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

"Sentencing Nikolas to death will change absolutely nothing," defense attorney Melisa McNeill said in closing arguments. "It will not bring back those 17 innocent victims that he viciously murdered."

The prosecution, arguing for the death penalty, told jurors that Cruz researched previous mass shootings and planned a "systematic massacre."

"Some of the remarks the defendant wrote on his YouTube were: 'No mercy, no questions, double tap. I'm going to ... murder children. ... I'd love to see the families suffer,'" prosecutor Michael Satz said in closing arguments.

"He's thinking ahead," Satz said, by "not only looking to inflict pain" on the victims, but also "anticipating how that pain, fear and death ... is gonna affect the families."