Death Penalty Would've Been 'Too Easy': LI Mom Of Slain Parkland Teacher

PARKLAND, FL — Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people and wounded 17 others when he opened fire four years ago on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was sentenced to life in prison in October.

Scott Beigel, a geography teacher and cross-country coach at the school, was one of the victims killed in the shooting.

After the jury rejected the death penalty for Cruz, Schulman's mother, Linda Beigel Schulman, spent more than a couple of weeks pondering the jury's verdict, according to a news release from public strategy firm Mercury.

"I’ve realized that the death penalty was way too easy for you," she told Cruz in court while reading her victim impact statement. "I learned that here in Florida, the average death penalty case takes 18 years from sentencing to execution. That means that I would probably be dead before you are executed. I will go forward knowing that you are going to a maximum-security prison, with other murderers, much tougher than you are. A prison where you will spend the rest of your miserable life, having to look over your shoulder, worried about every single minute of your day, of your life, and scared out of your mind, fearful for someone to take you out. A prison where your fellow prison inmates are just waiting to tear you apart because from what I hear, child killers are highly frowned upon and hated in prison."

Scott Beigel saved 31 students' lives before Cruz killed him, Linda Beigel Schulman said.

Scott Beigel, his father, Michael Schulman, said, was and still is a human being. He had a soul, he was kind, he had a character, and he cared for his fellow people, his father said.

Michael Schulman said Cruz is not a person; he is an animal.

"You are the lowest form of pond scum, and I apologize to pond scum for equating you with them," Michael Schulman told Cruz in his own victim impact statement. "You are a spineless and soulless monster."

Cruz's lifelong sentence was a day that was long coming, Michael Schulman said.

"I didn’t know how I would feel right now," he said. "I don’t feel any better because he's still breathing. The day he stops breathing, I will feel better."

The father said his family and all the others who lost someone in the "heinous" Parkland shooting will survive.

"We will go on, we will make the best of our lives, and we will deal with the daily grief, pain, and anger that we feel every day," he told Cruz. "I have to learn to live with the pain you caused for my entire family."

Michael Schulman owns Michael B. Schulman & Associates, a law practice in Melville. Linda Beigel Schulman has been recognized as a Long Island Woman of Distinction for her advocacy for "reasonable gun safety legislation."

Beigel Schulman strives to keep the legacy of her son alive. Scott worked as a counselor at Camp Starlight in Pennsylvania and, in his honor, she founded the Scott J. Beigel Memorial Fund to send underprivileged children touched by gun violence to summer sleep-away camp.