Shawna Forde, a a staunch Republican Teabagger and Tom Tancredo associate, has been sentenced to death in Pima County Arizona. While I fully endorse the guilty verdict against her, I oppose the sentence. She should have been sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
Shawna Forde, the anti-immigrant vigilante leader who orchestrated the murder of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter, will receive the death penalty, a Pima County, Ariz., jury decided today.
The decision is binding on the judge hearing the case.
The case of Forde, a one-time member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps who went on to found her own Minuteman American Defense (MAD) group, didn’t get much attention from the national mainstream media. But among immigrant rights groups, Forde has become a symbol of the vicious hatreds that seems to lie just beneath the surface of the contemporary nativist movement. Forde targeted the family in the hope of stealing money to fund her MAD organization…
…Forde was convicted on Feb. 14 of two counts of murder for the killing of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, in May 2009, along with the attempted murder of the child’s mother. She was also convicted of two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of aggravated robbery, armed robbery and burglary.
Forde led her two followers into the Flores home in Arivaca, Ariz., believing that Raul Flores was a drug dealer who would have plenty of cash on hand…
…Forde was once well known on the nastier end of the nativist movement, and in fact hobnobbed with many of its leaders… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <SPLC>
The reason I oppose the sentence is that I am opposed to capital punishment without exception. The Bill of Rights outlaws cruel and unusual punishment. Few things are more cruel that ending the life of another human being. The death penalty is now unusual, because almost every civilized nation in the world has outlawed it. Furthermore, the US has signed treaties to end federal execution, and have defaulted on our word. Contrary to the main Republican argument, executing a prisoner costs taxpayers far more than warehousing that same prisoner for life. While I believe this woman is guilty, too many innocent people have died through stare sanctioned murder.
23 Responses to “Death Sentence for Tea Party Republican”
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You have a good heart, TomCat, and yes, capital punishment is a bad thing. It certainly doesn’t restore to life those who have been murdered. I never knew Arizona was such a violent state until recently.
What do you expect with Jan Brewer, the Arizona Death Angel, in charge?
Life without parole is a perfect fit for Shawna’s crime. Death would let her off much too easily.
I’m not even trying to be vindictive. I work with guys that are never getting out, but have turned around and want to help others habilitate themselves.
I am against the death penalty for a variety of reasons, beyond the taking of another life.
Far better to give that bitch an “extraordinary rendition” to a Third World country and being forced to make ‘happy’ Disney toys for the rest of her life at substandard wages along with rotten living conditions.
Welcome, Douglas. 🙂
In such a locale, she might escape.
I’m with you 100%.
Thanks, Nameless.
This “woman” carried out a death sentence on an innocent man and his daughter. I have no pity for her, but life without parole would be much more painful for her I’m sure. No more using humans for target practice.
Welcome, Adnull. 🙂
I agree, byr please se my reply to #2 Fearguth above.
Agree with on this Tom-
Thanks Phillis.
I agree with you TomCat but for a different reason. We say and have laws against killing people. It is hypocritical for the State to outlaw killing and then for the State to sanction capital punishment.
That’s one of my reasons too, Jerry.
She’ll be out in 8 or 9 years, unfortunately. Historically juries, judges and parole boards go pretty easy on women for murder and violent crimes unless it’s for multiple murders. Google it and see for yourselves. 😥
She won’t be if they kill her or if she gets life without possibility.
Don’t know why, but it seems that right now, in this instance, both you and the State of Arizona are in the state of grace.
You lost me, my friend.
I would agree with you Tom because in general coming from a state that has nt had the death penalty since 1838 it’s pretty ingrained in our DNA to oppose it but I went and read the rest of the article at SPLC and I do think that a double tap to the head of a sleeping 9 year old merits death if not for this thug then the one who pulled the trigger.
For greed and power this woman helped inflame the anti-Hispanic rhetoric of AZ. I would not have sentenced her t death but I would have her accomplice (who has not yet been tried) Flores.
We could make the death penalty much cheaper which is apparently a concern since you mentioned it. 1 appeal on the merits of the case, 1 review by the SCOTUS judge of the district and that’s it. Then it becomes a less costly alternative to lifetime incarceration at 40K per annum.
A 9 year old, asleep on the couch with her puppy…sorry but that is a verifiable mitigating circumstance that warrants a piece of shit to die.
Mark, it’s not about who they are or what they deserve. It’s about who we are. I believe that the right way to correct a wrong is not to do wrong. Even with all the safeguards we have in place, we have executed several innocent people. Making the death penalty cheaper by stripping safeguards translates to more innocents murdered bu the state.
Some people deserve to die (e.g., Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy), but it’s better and cheaper to give them life without parole. Wasn’t Dahmer shanked in prison? As you know from working with prisoners, they are a highly moral bunch in regard to child killers and serial murderers. This person is probably not worth killing in the pen. Keeping her inside forever is best.
Same thing with the woman who murdered her daughter by torture and starvation in the last stage of the trial here in Eugene. Life without parole is the best sentence. I don’t want to have the state spend a fortune on appeals, but I don’t want her waltzing out in 30 years either.
Marva, when I say life without possibility, I mean literally that. The only way someone with that sentence gets out is if the conviction is overturned, because exculpatory evidence proves innocence.