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24444
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Edited Date/Time
9/24/2015 8:00pm
Sure would hate to have seen these two put to death. After all, they apologized at sentencing. 
http://wtop.com/virginia/2015/08/iowa-duo-set-for-sentencing-for-sex-tr…
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Iowa residents were sentenced to decades in prison Friday for forcing a young woman into prostitution and torturing her, leaving her with physical and psychological scars that a judge said might never heal.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson sentenced Aldair Hodza to almost 42 years in prison. He sentenced Laura Sorensen to 40 years.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors had recommended prison terms of 35 years — 11 more than the top end of the federal sentencing guideline range for their guilty pleas to transporting a person across state lines for prostitution. Hudson said that after looking at photographs of the victim’s wounds, he decided even that was not enough.
“She may never be able to have a normal relationship because of the unusual and rare level of depravity in this case,” Hudson said.
According to court papers, the defendants from Clive, Iowa, lured the victim into a recreational vehicle last December by saying they would take her to see a friend. Prosecutor Angela Miller said the sign posted over the entrance to Dante’s Inferno — “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” — would have been appropriate over the door of that RV.
For the next 18 days, the 20-year-old victim was sexually assaulted and forced to have sex with men who answered online ads. Hodza, 36, and Sorensen, 31, burned her with keys and scissors heated over the RV’s stove and extinguished cigarettes on her body. They drove nails into her feet, poured bleach into her wounds, and dragged her by a dog leash down a gravel path.
Hodza’s 8-year-old daughter witnessed some of the abuse and was in the vehicle during some of the sex acts.
The victim feared for her life after Hodza slit a dog’s throat in the RV and threatened to kill her by slowly cutting out her organs if she did not cooperate, the prosecutor said.
The torture finally ended when a trucker at a New Kent County truck stop called police after spotting through the RV window a woman who appeared frightened and malnourished.
Sorensen trembled as Miller recited details of the abuse.
The victim, surrounded by family and friends, listened but did not testify. Miller said she has been unable to talk about the ordeal even to her doctors.
Both defendants apologized before being sentenced.
“This is monstrous, horrible, senseless, inexplicable, inexcusable,” Hodza said. “I offer sincere apologies. I know that doesn’t mean much because I can’t take back what happened.”
Sorensen said she is “very sorry” and added: “I made a bad choice. However, I am not a bad person.”
The judge said he believes Sorensen is dangerous and that Hodza has “a dangerously dark side.”
“Some of the things you did to this young lady are so horrifying you cannot capture it in words,” Hudson told Hodza.
Defense attorneys said both defendants were abused as children. They agreed to lengthy sentences to avoid charges of kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life in prison.
http://wtop.com/virginia/2015/08/iowa-duo-set-for-sentencing-for-sex-tr…
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Iowa residents were sentenced to decades in prison Friday for forcing a young woman into prostitution and torturing her, leaving her with physical and psychological scars that a judge said might never heal.
U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson sentenced Aldair Hodza to almost 42 years in prison. He sentenced Laura Sorensen to 40 years.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors had recommended prison terms of 35 years — 11 more than the top end of the federal sentencing guideline range for their guilty pleas to transporting a person across state lines for prostitution. Hudson said that after looking at photographs of the victim’s wounds, he decided even that was not enough.
“She may never be able to have a normal relationship because of the unusual and rare level of depravity in this case,” Hudson said.
According to court papers, the defendants from Clive, Iowa, lured the victim into a recreational vehicle last December by saying they would take her to see a friend. Prosecutor Angela Miller said the sign posted over the entrance to Dante’s Inferno — “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” — would have been appropriate over the door of that RV.
For the next 18 days, the 20-year-old victim was sexually assaulted and forced to have sex with men who answered online ads. Hodza, 36, and Sorensen, 31, burned her with keys and scissors heated over the RV’s stove and extinguished cigarettes on her body. They drove nails into her feet, poured bleach into her wounds, and dragged her by a dog leash down a gravel path.
Hodza’s 8-year-old daughter witnessed some of the abuse and was in the vehicle during some of the sex acts.
The victim feared for her life after Hodza slit a dog’s throat in the RV and threatened to kill her by slowly cutting out her organs if she did not cooperate, the prosecutor said.
The torture finally ended when a trucker at a New Kent County truck stop called police after spotting through the RV window a woman who appeared frightened and malnourished.
Sorensen trembled as Miller recited details of the abuse.
The victim, surrounded by family and friends, listened but did not testify. Miller said she has been unable to talk about the ordeal even to her doctors.
Both defendants apologized before being sentenced.
“This is monstrous, horrible, senseless, inexplicable, inexcusable,” Hodza said. “I offer sincere apologies. I know that doesn’t mean much because I can’t take back what happened.”
Sorensen said she is “very sorry” and added: “I made a bad choice. However, I am not a bad person.”
The judge said he believes Sorensen is dangerous and that Hodza has “a dangerously dark side.”
“Some of the things you did to this young lady are so horrifying you cannot capture it in words,” Hudson told Hodza.
Defense attorneys said both defendants were abused as children. They agreed to lengthy sentences to avoid charges of kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life in prison.
The Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders occurred on July 23, 2007. Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters were murdered, while her husband, Dr. William Petit, was injured during a home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut.[1] The Hartford Courant referred to the case as "possibly the most widely publicized crime in the state's history".[2] In 2010 Steven Hayes was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. His accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, was found guilty on October 13, 2011, and sentenced to death on January 27, 2012.[3] In August 2015 the state of Connecticut abolished the death penalty, which means that both Hayes and Komisarjevsky would have their death sentences turned into life sentences.[4]
The Shop
James Holmes slaughters innocent people and changes so many lifes forever only to get life in prison. 3 meals a day, warm bed, free healthcare, free dental for life all carried on the tax payers back! Also I don't care for courts allowing someone to claim insanity, doesn't matter and eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
You could even participate in a public stoning and get to throw a few rocks yourself.
Four people exonerated from death row this year alone:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/06/10/texas-death…
Texas death row inmate Alfred Dewayne Brown was released from prison Monday. He spent 10 years on death row. A huge portion of the credit for his release goes to Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg, who won a Pulitzer for her coverage of the case.
Brown had an alibi for the crime for which he was convicted — an armed robbery that resulted in the death of a police officer. Brown said he was staying at his girlfriend’s apartment at the time of the robbery. But after a browbeating from a Houston cop who inexplicably served as foreman on the grand jury that indicted Brown, the woman changed her testimony. Grand jury transcripts would later show that during her testimony, the cop/foreman threatened to indict Brown’s girlfriend for perjury and threatened to take away her children. She was eventually jailed for seven weeks, then released when she changed her testimony to contradict Brown’s alibi. Without his girlfriend’s testimony, Brown was convicted and sentenced to death.
Seven years later, Brown’s attorneys discovered phone records confirming that Brown had called his girlfriend at her job from her apartment around the time of the murder. Not only were those records never given to Brown’s defense attorneys, the records were found in the garage of a Houston homicide detective.
As I reported here at The Watch last summer, leaked grand jury documents later showed that the same cop who threatened Brown’s girlfriend had served on at least nine other grand juries. This was thanks to a grand jury selection system known as the “key man” system, which critics say allows judges and prosecutors to stack grand juries with people most likely to do the state’s bidding. The Texas legislature has since started to reform the key man system.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Brown is the 12th death row exoneration since 2013, and the fourth death row inmate exonerated so far this year.
So basically they are a product of their upbringing. They were abused as kids, no wonder they turned out the way they did. And they deserve to be put to death? They have probably been to hell and back since childhood. They are a product of the society they grew up in. If the society couldn´t protect them as kids, why should they be killed by the society which let them down in the first place? (this could be discussed in the abortion thread too btw - unfit parents, not being able to take good care of their kids, druggies etc.)
Another thing I really don´t get is the plea bargaining you have in the US. There is no way a prosecutor here would not charge someone with a crime, just to make sure someone pleads guilty for something else. If a prosecutor believes he can prove them guilty of kidnapping too, it should be his/her job to make sure those charges will stand court. I have never been able to figure out the rationality behind that, although I understand the reasoning. It´s a way to get away with something just to make the court procedure quicker, and guarantee a sentencing. It´s just not right IMO. Oh well, cultural differences I suppose...
P.S. No guns in the village
Here's an actual contradiction: People arguing pro-choicers on the basis of the sanctity of life yet being in support of the death penalty.
Pit Row
Honestly... Truly disturbing article. Reminds me of the girl in California they found in that nut jobs back yard.
From Wikipedia.
These are people that were convicted in a court of law that were later found to be innocent. Do you think that they found all of them. What if your wife/son/daughter/father/mother/friend was one they didn't find?
You trust the fucking morons that get roped into jury duty?
You trust the DA's that bring capital charges and are also running for higher office?
You trust the fucking government to decide who lives and dies?
This particular case notwithstanding, there is no justice in a system that executes innocent people.
Goddamit newmann, please don't tell me that you accept the tradeoff that "sure, we might fry a few that didn't deserve it but I'm OK with that".
So yes. I'm against the death penalty. Another strike against my "conservative" credentials.
I understand we're not a third world country and I don't feel as if we should just off everyone on DR. However I do strongly feel that without a doubt a 100% smoking gun that the person is guilty (video, multiple witnesses, confessions , etc.) then they should be put to death. I admit the single appeal was a bit much, my bad wasn't thinking to clearly.
As for the death penalty, I personally have no moral issue with murderers and rapists being put to death, but like others have mentioned we have proven that the system isn't perfect and too often we get the wrong guy. For that reason, I don't support capital punishment.
What village did you live in by the way, out of curiosity?
What if this victim was YOUR mother....or YOUR sister, ...or YOUR daughter?
Can any of you posting here can say something similar has happened to a close friend or family member or yourself? I dont think you can!
Some of us feel more compassion for the victim than the criminal. How some of you can feel more for the violent offender is beyond me!! Any of your posts attacking the people who want the criminal put down is basically a defense for the criminal and a further disconcern for that victim. You people are messed up! And I have to wonder if you are not some kind of torturous murderous thugs yourself that get off on that kind of shit!?
one poster above gives them a pass because they "claim" they were both abused as kids and know no better.....yet they apologize for what they did.? again ....no sense what so ever! They knew full well what they were doing. As most all criminals do.....Its why they try to hide it!
another poster goes for the case of "sanctity of life but pro death penalty" argument.....REALLY? Since when do fetuses jump out of the mother and run around committing these types of crimes?
You goodie goodie people that want to give these people a pass to live should put yourself on a list to be the only ones to feed and house them in prison. (or just let them come live with you...which I would LOVE to see happen!) Because I sure hate knowing some of the tax dollars I contribute to the pool is keeping these violent animals breathing.
But yeah, we're the bad people for trying to protect or get justice for the victims......Good liberal reasoning right there!
As for your "do fetuses jump out of the mother and run around committing these types of crimes" argument, yes, they do- when they are of age and born into significantly disadvantaged situations. In fact, there is considerable evidence for this.
Additionally, it costs way more of your tax dollars to put someone to death than to do life in prison. All these issues are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exactly how fucked up our justice/prison system is.
We just don't think that an innocent life being taken by mistake is a price we're willing to pay to see some people get the punishment they deserve.
If the cost to the public is to keep them alive and give them three squares a day to keep them off the streets where they can do no more harm, then so be it. If we're paying to lock people up over a couple of joints, then the cost to house a murderer or a rapist or a kidnapper shouldn't be questioned.
Post a reply to: Good thing you guys are against the death penalty.