Miss-Delectable
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The Rapid City Journal
A deaf woman could be sentenced to death by lethal injection if convicted of kidnapping or murdering another deaf woman, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Daphne Wright, 43, is accused of abducting, killing and dismembering Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, in Sioux Falls one year ago.
Jeff Larson, Minnehaha County public defender, argued that Wright, who communicates primarily through American Sign Language, is intelligent. But executing her would amount to cruel and unusual punishment since her communication skills and control over her environment are limited because she's been deaf since she was an infant, he argued.
"It doesn't mean that somebody is mentally slow," Larson said. "But there are barriers there. And the barriers have to do with the ability to get information in and get information out and to use it."
If Wright were convicted, she may not be able to bring up mitigating factors that could spare her life, he said.
But Circuit Judge Bradley Zell sided with prosecutors, saying there's no state or federal law or court case indicating that deaf people are protected from capital punishment the same way juveniles or mentally disabled people are.
The judge said he found three other cases in which the death penalty was imposed on a deaf person: in Texas in 1951, Florida in 1998 and Illinois in 2006.
Wright has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial beginning March 5.
VanderGiesen, who also was deaf, disappeared on Feb. 1, 2006. Wright was arrested 10 days later after a search of the basement of her Sioux Falls house yielded bone fragments, muscle and fat that matched DNA taken from VanderGiesen's toothbrush, according to court papers and testimony.
Parts of her dismembered body later were found in the Sioux Falls landfill and in a ditch near Beaver Creek, Minn. Her parents have since buried her remains at her hometown of Rock Valley, Iowa.
In a videotaped police interview shown at an earlier hearing, Wright said she and VanderGiesen had fought weeks earlier because Wright, who is homosexual, suspected VanderGiesen of trying to break up Wright's relationship with Sallie Collins.
VanderGiesen was heterosexual and was a friend of Collins, Wright said.
An autopsy determined that VanderGiesen was killed by either suffocation or a blow to the head.
If convicted and sentenced to death, Wright would be the first woman to be executed in South Dakota. Charles Rhines, Donald Moeller, Briley Piper and Elijah Page already are on death row.
South Dakota has not had an execution in 60 years.
A deaf woman could be sentenced to death by lethal injection if convicted of kidnapping or murdering another deaf woman, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Daphne Wright, 43, is accused of abducting, killing and dismembering Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, in Sioux Falls one year ago.
Jeff Larson, Minnehaha County public defender, argued that Wright, who communicates primarily through American Sign Language, is intelligent. But executing her would amount to cruel and unusual punishment since her communication skills and control over her environment are limited because she's been deaf since she was an infant, he argued.
"It doesn't mean that somebody is mentally slow," Larson said. "But there are barriers there. And the barriers have to do with the ability to get information in and get information out and to use it."
If Wright were convicted, she may not be able to bring up mitigating factors that could spare her life, he said.
But Circuit Judge Bradley Zell sided with prosecutors, saying there's no state or federal law or court case indicating that deaf people are protected from capital punishment the same way juveniles or mentally disabled people are.
The judge said he found three other cases in which the death penalty was imposed on a deaf person: in Texas in 1951, Florida in 1998 and Illinois in 2006.
Wright has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial beginning March 5.
VanderGiesen, who also was deaf, disappeared on Feb. 1, 2006. Wright was arrested 10 days later after a search of the basement of her Sioux Falls house yielded bone fragments, muscle and fat that matched DNA taken from VanderGiesen's toothbrush, according to court papers and testimony.
Parts of her dismembered body later were found in the Sioux Falls landfill and in a ditch near Beaver Creek, Minn. Her parents have since buried her remains at her hometown of Rock Valley, Iowa.
In a videotaped police interview shown at an earlier hearing, Wright said she and VanderGiesen had fought weeks earlier because Wright, who is homosexual, suspected VanderGiesen of trying to break up Wright's relationship with Sallie Collins.
VanderGiesen was heterosexual and was a friend of Collins, Wright said.
An autopsy determined that VanderGiesen was killed by either suffocation or a blow to the head.
If convicted and sentenced to death, Wright would be the first woman to be executed in South Dakota. Charles Rhines, Donald Moeller, Briley Piper and Elijah Page already are on death row.
South Dakota has not had an execution in 60 years.
