Shawna Forde Sentenced To Death For Double Murder In Arizona

WASHINGTON -- Shawna Forde, whom a jury convicted last week of murdering nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul Flores, was sentenced to death by an Arizona jury on Tuesday. The unanimous jury ruling is binding.

The court found that Forde led a group of anti-immigrant vigilantes in a March 2009 raid on the Flores home, where they posed as immigration agents and pushed their way through the door.

She and her accomplices, Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, allegedly shot Raul Flores before turning their guns on Brisenia, who begged not to be shot. Gina Gonzalez, Brisenia's mother, played dead and survived the attack.

The case was not designated as a hate crime, despite Forde's long history with anti-immigrant organizations. She once maintained a Tea Party blog, was a member of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and has presented herself as a representative of Federation for American Immigration Reform. (All three have since distanced themselves from her.) After being cast out from the Minuteman group due to erratic behavior, she formed her own vigilante group, called Minutemen American Defense, which also patrolled the United States-Mexico border trying to detect illegal immigration.

Latino advocacy groups have rallied to draw attention to the case, which drew little media attention until Forde's murder trial this year.

"What we have shown is that Latinos are watching, and if people and parties want the Latino vote, they will have to speak out against things like this," Joaquin Guerra, campaign director for Latino activism group Presente.org, told HuffPost last week. "We hope her death wasn't in vain and that it serves as an example of what can happen when the types of conditions that are in Arizona are allowed to go unchecked and are legitimated as serious policy issues."

Editor's Note: A FAIR spokesperson contacted HuffPost and told us that Shawna Forde misrepresented herself in her television appearance, and has never had any association with FAIR -- as a member, employee, or spokesperson.

Comments

[Tanya Marie]

02:04 PM on 02/28/2011

Someone call Machete

[josephdowdy]

11:11 PM on 02/24/2011

It's no wonder I haven't heard about this before. The media was ignoring it until this insane woman was sentenced to die.

[mama1974]

11:03 AM on 02/24/2011

Forde will become a martyr in her own mind. I doubt she has the mental capacity to ever take responsibilty or experience remorse. It might be interesting to see what is really being said and done in these groups. And how exactly they distance themselves, "officially" while continuing contact. She bragged about these kinds of action, planned them somewhere. Let her keep bragging, as she will no doubt delight in, and she'll give up information. A few months with no one listening, no more important testimony, no more lawyers professing how good you are being, no judge to plead in front of, this woman will wither in prison. But she wasn't alone in doing this and other "braggers" might deserve to be looked at, if not for this particular crime, perhaps others.

[aechef45]

01:55 AM on 03/05/2011

I can tell you how the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps distanced themselves from Forde, because I was a member when they pulled her card. They revoked her membership card, sent an announcement around to that effect, and advised members not to talk to her. I met her right before that time through the WA chapter and thought she was a nut. Nobody I know in MCDC would have anything to do with her because she was obviously trouble. Looks like we had good judgement. Actually I think she'll thrive in prison. She's one tough sociopathic brute of a person and from my few hours with her think she'll do just fine (unfortunately). Some of your musings about "these groups" are fantasy. Maybe too many spy novels, you might want to cut back a bit. The world isn't that complicated.

[Pops]

10:49 AM on 02/24/2011

life in prison ?????........ why should she qualify for a lifetime of publically funded healthcare ???????

[desertdweller]

12:03 PM on 03/01/2011

I doubt she will last one month. Even in protective custody, she will be vulnerable to attack. Her life, if you want to call it that, will be a living hell.

[Hardyman1966]

10:45 AM on 02/24/2011

NOW we're making some real progress!  Extremists "who got here first" should take note.

[Chimichurri]

10:33 AM on 02/24/2011

This is what the Republicans and their Tea Party compatriots are all about.

[independentjukebox]

10:28 AM on 02/24/2011

Btw , AOL is killing this place with the over the top moderation required on almost every other article. Here is business model for you to consider. If you want an uptick in activity then nobody likes to be standing in line to see their comments posted.

Go use an automated moderation platform thatstill alows instant posting, I just did a search and came up with one company being used by many others- called Crisp Thinking. should invoice you for doing the research...

[Readbetweentheelevens]

04:39 PM on 02/25/2011

I should be allowed an invoice as well for approving your on-line research.

[rockinrod]

10:27 AM on 02/24/2011

I'm not an advocate for the death penalty and think a lifetime behind bars, having to endure the hatred of all the Latinas she would encounter, would be far more just.
But for Shawna I could be talked into making an exception.
Nah, lifetime imprisonment would be far more just.

[independentjukebox]

10:20 AM on 02/24/2011

after she killed the nine year and her father, she went and paid her dues to republican party at her local church...

[chucknchar]

09:53 AM on 02/24/2011

Fry her and after that hang her.

[kimbanyc]

08:49 AM on 02/24/2011

Another sad example of right wing violence

[Threepointturn]

08:22 AM on 02/24/2011

Fox News Gop propaganda channel is NOT touching this story (with a ten-ft. pole), for some reason. She should be a hero on Fox.

[Waltfl]

10:42 AM on 02/24/2011

It's called selective reporting. Whenever an (assumed) immigrant shoots a farmer you report 24/7 for 6 months about it. A case like this = complete silence. 

You don't see anything about the Walker-prank of FOX either.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

04:41 PM on 02/25/2011

A reporting of the story may discourage other like minded people. We couldn't have that, could we?

[wsh310]

08:08 AM on 02/24/2011

It's funny how these organizations have distanced themselves from her but most people in them share her same extreme beliefs over immigration.

[aechef45]

02:07 AM on 03/05/2011

Obviously they don't share her beliefs because she's the only one killing little girls. And it's not funny at all really that when people make statements beginning with "most people" in a certain group are a certain way, a stereotype follows.

[hershobr]

07:24 AM on 02/24/2011

Is it me or does she look like a young Kathy Bates in that picture?

[cottonliberalcat]

09:33 AM on 02/24/2011

I thought the same thing.. If ever a movie Bates could definitley play her....

[GetMeOutOfHere]

10:03 AM on 02/24/2011

I was thinking that same thing.

[yellowdoggie]

07:12 AM on 02/24/2011

I normally am not a big fan of the death penalty since it seems to be handed down with little regard to fairness and so many people on death row have been found to be innocent. HOWEVER, in this case, there is no doubt she did it, and it is an absolutely fair sentence. She is not suffering from being the wrong race or having a bad lawyer. She committed a heinous act with no mitigating circumstances. If anyone deserves to die for a crime, she does. I think her execution sends a strong message that the "vigilantes" who like taking the law into their own hands should hear. And those of you who think it would cause her to suffer more to sit in prison and rot, I agree. But in this case, I am not concerned with her suffering. I want her life for the lives of those she took. I think justice demands it.

[cottonliberalcat]

09:37 AM on 02/24/2011

First, I love your dog. I have retriever too, Wonderful dogs- Max is the best male in the house..
I believe she deserves the death penalty now.. Not 20 years from now.. I mean next week. Or put her in public population. The prisoners will take care of her for killing a child and for being racist...