Jury Spares Life of Black Lesbian Killer

By Gay.com

A jury Wednesday sentenced a woman to life in prison without parole for kidnapping an acquaintance and hacking up her body with a chain saw.

Daphne Wright, 43, smiled after the verdict was read. 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,''she said.

In closing arguments earlier in the day, prosecutor Dave Nelson said Wright deserved to die by lethal injection because the mutilation was the act of a depraved mind.

Prosecutors said Wright was jealous of the friendship VanderGiesen had with Wright's former lover and it turned to rage that drove Wright to kidnap VanderGiesen, kill her, burn the body and cut it apart with a chain saw.

Wright's public defender, Jeff Larson, argued that she burned and cut the body as an afterthought and that the slaying was an isolated act motivated by jealousy.

Nelson told jurors their verdict will be just if they treat both women equally. VanderGiesen was white and heterosexual. Wright is black and homosexual.

After about eight hours of deliberation, jurors found that Wright had the depravity of mind, but they decided that she should not be executed by lethal injection 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)