Woke DA's outrageous 5-word reason for not seeking death penalty for Laken Riley's killer

The 'progressive' district attorney who prosecuted the case for the migrant who brutally murdered nursing student Laken Riley said she wouldn't seek the death penalty because it would cause 'collateral consequences to undocumented defendants.' 

Jose Ibarra, 26, was convicted Wednesday on all 10 counts for his brutal slaying of the 22-year-old Augusta University student while she was jogging and got life in prison without parole.

Many Republicans were shocked that Ibarra, an undocumented migrant from Venezuela, was not given a death sentence.  

Deborah Gonzalez, a liberal prosecutor funded by George Soros, said in February that her office would 'no longer seek the death penalty' because life without parole already constitutes 'very substantial punishment.' 

Gonzalez made several other 'soft-on-crime' policy decisions out of a desire to impact 'the community's fundamental faith in the system.'

That included not charging simple marijuana offenses, not using mandatory minimum sentencing and taking 'into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants.'

She was forced to step down from the case and appoint a special prosecutor after being unable to get convictions. She's also previously been slammed for dismissing charges against a child rapist who was later convicted of the attack and even her own former supporters believe her to be incompetent.

 She lost her re-election campaign to an independent by 20 points in November.

Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed the decision and called for Ibarra, who entered the country illegally, to be given the death penalty.

Georgia State Senator Colton Moore demanded the Attorney General Chris Carr file an emergency motion to demand the death penalty and slammed the Democrat prosecutor in charge of the case, Deborah Gonzalez.

'I am officially calling on Attorney General Chris Carr to file an emergency motion to intervene and demand the death penalty for the murderer of Laken Riley,' Moore wrote on X.

'District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez let her radical political agenda stand in the way of justice. 

'By refusing to seek the death penalty, she denied Laken's family, friends, and community the full measure of justice they deserve.

'Join me in calling on AG Chris Carr to demand the death penalty for Jose Ibarra.'

Decisions like this are considered the main reason Gonzalez lost her re-election by 20 points to independent Kalki Yalamanchili, in a race where Gonzalez ran 16 points behind Kamala Harris, who won the district. 

When Gonzalez took office, she released a memorandum detailing revised policies on prosecution, sentencing and rehabilitation programs. But she quickly retracted it because of intense backlash.

'I think part of it is because I´m outspoken and I am unapologetically a Democrat, and I consider myself a progressive prosecutor,' Gonzalez said of the criticism. 

'There are many prosecutors who don´t like that word - progressive - but to me, what it means is that we need to look at this differently. ... We need to always ask ourselves, `Is this in the interest of justice?´'

When Gonzalez took office, dozens of staff left.

Though turnover is normal when new district attorneys enter office and offices across Georgia face staffing shortages, it is especially pronounced for progressive prosecutors.

The early exodus in Gonzalez's office was driven by policy disagreements, said Patrick Najjar, a former prosecutor under Gonzalez. But it didn't take long for the office to descend into a 'downward spiral' due to poor management, he said, adding that he was overwhelmed by his caseload and left after five months.

June Teasley, who left Gonzalez´s office, said Gonzalez didn't have the prosecutorial experience for the job.

'People left Deborah´s office because they couldn´t function under her disjointed attempt to be a progressive prosecutor,' Teasley said. 

Girtz, the Athens-Clarke County mayor, supported Gonzalez when she ran for state House and for DA. But in November, supported Yalamanchili.

'Even if you call yourself a progressive, part of that is just making sure that the wheels of justice turn and don´t grind to a halt,' Girtz said. 'And unfortunately, the wheels are not turning very smoothly these days.'

Yalamanchili has said he would clean up the 'general dysfunction' in the office, including low conviction rates. 

Gonzalez blames staffing shortages and said she hired eight prosecutors in recent months.

Gonzalez also has faced legal reprimands, including having been cited at least four times for not communicating with victims about cases and sued for violating open records laws. 

She said her critics are trying to 'distract' from her office's accomplishments, which include expunging people´s records, resentencing five people and referring 15 juveniles to restorative justice programs. 

Donald Trump paid tribute to 'beloved' Laken Riley after an undocumented migrant was found guilty of her murder as Republicans demanded he get the death penalty.

'JUSTICE FOR LAKEN RILEY! The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes,' Trump posted on his Truth Social website.

'Although the pain and heartbreak will last forever, hopefully this can help bring some peace and closure to her wonderful family who fought for Justice, and to ensure that other families don’t have to go through what they have,' he said. 

Trump used emotional language, on a day family and friends gave dramatic testimony to the judge and shed tears in court.

'We love you, Laken, and our hearts will always be with you. It is time to secure our Border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!' wrote Trump. 

Trump and other Republicans often cited Riley's murder in claiming falsely that migrants who crossed the southern border illegally were responsible for a wave of violent crime.

He spoke about her case at the Republican convention, where he blamed the Biden Administration for letting her killer into the country.

Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley, 22, on a wooded trail while she was out running on Feb. 22 and killed her after she resisted his efforts to rape her.

In her closing statement earlier on Wednesday, prosecutor Sheila Ross called the evidence against Ibarra "overwhelming," including DNA under her fingernails that authorities linked to the defendant, scratches on Ibarra's body and video footage of a man matching Ibarra's description throwing a bloodied jacket into a dumpster soon after the murder.

Defense attorneys argued that the evidence was circumstantial and could not rule out another attacker.

Riley's case made national headlines in March during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, when firebrand U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted his speech to demand that he 'say her name.'

Biden went off-script to mention Riley, whom he described as an innocent woman killed by an 'illegal.' Republicans criticized him for appearing to mispronounce Riley's first name, while Biden later apologized for using the word 'illegal' to refer to a person.

Biden, then the Democratic nominee for president, dropped out of the race in July and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost earlier this month to Trump.

Trump has vowed to pursue mass deportations of immigrants after he is sworn into office in January.