Deborah Gonzalez lost her re-election bid in Georgia
When a Georgia judge convicted Jose Ibarra, Laken Riley’s killer, on 10 counts and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, politicians and pundits across the country expressed frustration that he was not sentenced to death.
Over a nearly four-day trial, prosecutor Sheila Ross brought 29 witnesses to the stand to prove that Ibarra brutally attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was jogging on the University of Georgia campus by bashing her head with large rocks and possibly strangling her.
But Georgia Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez decided not to pursue the death penalty against Ibarra in May, about three months after Riley’s murder, saying in a May 31 press release that the decision to seek life without the possibility of parole instead of death was “reached after careful deliberation with the senior prosecutor and the support of the victim’s family.”
“Our utmost duty is to ensure that justice is served and that the victim’s family is an integral part of the deliberation process,” Gonzalez said in a statement at the time. “We understand that there will be those outside this office who will disagree with our decision and seek to exploit this case for political gain. However, the integrity of our judicial process and the pursuit of justice must always transcend political considerations.”
That killer deserves a long painful death. Lethal injection is to easy on him. On second thought hanging or the guillotine would be acceptable
He should have gotten the death penalty.
Since when does a victim’s family decide on capital murder punishment? What happened to LAWS and punishment? Who amongst us wants to pay for this evil monster’s sex change operation so he can rule in the womens’ prison??