A woman who
killed an acquaintance and dismembered her body with a chain
saw has been sentenced to life in prison without parole,
after a jury in Sioux Falls, S.D., decided to
spare her life. Daphne Wright, 43, smiled after the
verdict was read Wednesday. Wright was convicted last
week of kidnapping and murdering Darlene VanderGiesen, 42,
in February 2006.
VanderGiesen's
mother, Dee, told Wright that God had helped the family
forgive her. ''We pray for you every day asking that God may
touch your heart, that you may come to know his love,
and that you repent of your sins and seek God's
forgiveness,'' she said.
Dee VanderGiesen
told Wright's mother, Carolyn Tucker, ''We both have
lost our daughters. One to death and the other to prison
time for as long as she lives. May God's grace be
shown to you at this time of pain in your life.''
Prosecutors said
Wright was jealous of the friendship VanderGiesen had
with Wright's former lover and that it turned to rage that
drove Wright to kidnap VanderGiesen, kill her, burn
the body, and cut it apart with a chain saw.
VanderGiesen's remains were found in a Sioux Falls landfill
and a Minnesota ditch.
In closing
arguments earlier in the day, prosecutor Dave Nelson said
Wright, who like VanderGiesen is deaf, deserved to die by
lethal injection because the mutilation was the act of
a depraved mind. But he said he respected the jury's
verdict.
''I think they
reached this decision independently of any of the
diversions of race, of deafness, or anything else. I think
they decided this case on the evidence,'' he said.
Wright's public
defender, Jeff Larson, argued that she burned and cut up
the body as an afterthought and that the slaying was an
isolated act motivated by jealousy.
Nelson told
jurors their verdict would be just if they treated both
women equally. VanderGiesen was white and
heterosexual; Wright is a black lesbian.
After about eight
hours of deliberation, jurors found that Wright had the
depravity of mind, but they decided that she should not be
executed for it. The jury forewoman read the verdict,
not the judge. It means Wright will spend the rest of
her life at the women's prison in Pierre or the
penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
It was South
Dakota's first capital punishment case with a female
defendant. (Carson Walker, AP)
