In Mesa, Arizona, a man hit a woman so hard he gave her brain damage that eventually resulted in her death. The abuse also led to the death of her fetus.
His conviction and sentencing were handed down recently, and we should all be relieved that this criminal is behind bars.
We don’t have to be nearly as pleased about what his sentencing says about the value of women in our society:
Gurrola was sentenced to 16 years in the death of Monica Sanchez and 20 years for the killing of her fetus.
There you have it. Women, your death is 4/5ths as bad as the death of a fetus. Isn’t it nice to know your official legal price tag?
Seriously, couldn’t the judge have at least rated the deaths equally? Why would s/he hand down a ruling that so obviously devalues the life of a woman unless that was the whole point? I suppose the sentence could be framed as emphasizing the value of a fetus, but that strikes me as a euphemism for the same thing.
It appears some of our courts are getting impatient waiting for the fundies to bring their anti-woman agenda to them.
Now who gets to complain about activist judges?
(At 16/20, I’m pretty sure that would actually be 4/5ths as valuable…)
OTOH, it’s still asinine. But I’ve learned not to expect too much from this country any more…
Hey Mike,
Already switched it before you commented. Math and I aren’t best buddies.
That’s okay Marc. I had to make my peace with math a long time ago…
I’m trying to find more information on this case, hoping that I can find something that’ll justify the sentencing in the slightest. Instead I found this (emphasis added):
(The second half of the sentence is particularly classy, I think.) A fetus at seven weeks is smaller than a kidney bean. According to this judge, I am worth 4/5 of something smaller than a kidney bean. Fabulous.
[...] Posted in Reproduction, Law, News at 9:24 am by The Lizard Queen This morning I came across this story, via PunkAssBlog.com: PHOENIX — A Mesa man convicted of second-degree murder in the slaying of an unborn child was sentenced Friday to 36 years in prison. [...]
i would like to get some reaction from Ms. Sanchez’s family on this. i don’t know how i would react to this if it were someone i loved… a fucking slap in the face is the only way i can view it.
[...] Court rules women 80% as important as fetuses. Add to: Bloglines | document.write(“Del.icio.us”) | Digg it | +Google | Y! MyWeb [...]
“Gurrola was sentenced to 16 years in the death of Monica Sanchez and 20 years for the killing of her fetus.”
What an anti-biblical ruling.
Technically, fetus wasn’t even a fetus, but an embryo…here’s Wiki’s definition: “In humans, the embryo is defined as the product of conception from implantation in the uterus through the eighth week of development.”
So, yes, indeed, women are less valuable than embryos. Good to know my place.
[...] Check out the new Four-Fifths Rule. [...]
Surprise, surprise, the law discriminates within a social hierarchy. Was the embryo male or female? We’d need to compare women vs. female embryo, women vs. male embryo, and women vs men. Then get into race… white woman vs. white embryo or Other woman, etc, etc.
Isn’t this a lot worse than the 3/5ths compromise?
At least white people are people. A fucking fetus? C’mon.
Links…
Too busy to blog today. So, links and a recipe. Do the barf bags come in pink too?: Boutique airline aimed at women will launch next month. According to the Guardian, the airline, called Fly Pink, “will offer flights to……
[...] Via PunkAssBlog. [...]
A 7 week embryo? 7 WEEKS? *splutter* *fail*
[...] Courts rule: Women 80% as valuable as fetuses at PunkAssBlog.com (tags: WTF Feminism) [...]
Hello everybody. First off, I’d like to say thank you for keeping up with the news on this matter. I am the sister of Monica Sanchez. For my family and I, it is a relief that this is over. But honestly, I thought that Jorge would have gotten more time for my sister especially for all the damage that he inflicted on her. i saw all the autopsy photos. but as you know that wasn’t the case. However, we are relieved that he got what he got because at the start of this mess…they (attorneys) told us that he was only going to get possibly 10-16yrs. All i know is that he is going to get what he deserves in prison.
Thank you for commenting on this. I am Maria Sanchez, the mother of Monica Sanchez. Yes, I was upset that my daughter’s life was valued less than the baby’s. I call it a baby because that is what it was to me. But I still would have liked for Gurrola to be given the same or more for Monica. I thank God that this is over and he will rot in jail for most of his life.
ermmmm, yeah ok then…
what a load of garbage.
It is blatantly obvious that the ‘key’ factor is the amount of potential life taken. As such, a child would loose potentially more life than an adult and therefore the sentance is higher. If you check over a few past cases (freely available on the net) you will find that, in general, murderers are sentanced to more time for the killing of children than for adults. The point is not what ‘value’ your life has but how much life you potentially loose.
Ha.
Must be a male fetus.