The progressive Georgia district attorney who was prosecuting nursing student Laken Riley’s illegal immigrant killer refused to seek the death penalty even after removing herself from the case – drawing outrage when the defendant was sentenced to life without parole.

Athens-Clarke District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, who appointed a special prosecutor to take over the prosecution of Jose Ibarra at the end of February amid criticism over her own prosecutorial record, laid out her soft-on-crime reforms when she assumed office in January 2021.

Gonzalez said her office would “no longer seek the death penalty” and when considering charging defendants, she would “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants,” according to a copy of the district attorney’s policies shared by Georgia State Rep. Houston Gaines.

Ibarra, a 26-year-old Tren de Arangua gang member, was sentenced Wednesday to life without parole after being convicted of murdering the 22-year-old college student. His sentence angered many Republicans, including Gaines, who felt the killer should get the death penalty.

Gonzalez announced this spring would not seek the death penalty against Ibarra, stating, “our utmost duty is to ensure that justice is served and that the victim’s family is an integral part of the deliberation process.”

She also acknowledged critics will seek to “exploit this case for political gain,” but legal decisions must “always transcend political considerations,” according to WRDW.

The decision appears in line with what Gonzalez told staff in 2021.

“Cases which are legally eligible for the death penalty are eligible for sentences of life without parole and life with parole eligibility after serving thirty years,” she wrote.

“Both of these sentences constitute very substantial punishment. Decisions to seek the sentence of life without parole are a sentence of death in prison.”

She also reportedly said the office would take into account “collateral consequences to undocumented defendants,” when making charging decisions.

GOP lawmakers were incensed that Ibarra would not face the death penalty.

“If there was ever a case where the death penalty was appropriate, this is it,” Gaines tweeted Wednesday.

Meanwhile state Sen. Colton Moore called on the state attorney general to intervene.

“I am officially calling on Attorney General Chris Carr to file an emergency motion to intervene and demand the death penalty for the murderer of Laken Riley,” he tweeted.

“District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez let her radical political agenda stand in the way of justice. By refusing to seek the death penalty, she denied Laken’s family, friends, and community the full measure of justice they deserve.”

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene also weighed in.

“Jose Ibarra deserves the death penalty,” she tweeted. “Just as Laken’s mother Allyson asked the judge, Laken’s evil (murderer) deserves exactly what he gave to Laken.”

Gonzalez lost her reelection bid this month by a 20-percentage point margin.

The latest College Football Playoff selection committee rankings are out and they’re not without controversy. In particular, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum took major issue with the rankings, ripping the committee over Georgia in particular.

While making an appearance on Get Up on Wednesday morning, Finebaum was critical of Georgia being ranked 10th, which is good enough to make it into the Playoff but isn’t as high as it seems like they should be to Finebaum.

“It’s the Georgia Bulldogs because when you showed that graphic,” Paul Finebaum said. You saw Georgia’s opponents all over the place, including Texas, the number three team in the country. They only beat Texas in Texas. Look, they played at Alabama. They lost at Ole Miss. They beat Tennessee. When you look at everyone else, Indiana doesn’t have a ranked team, they’ll get one this weekend. Penn State has lost to one. Every time I get on here every Wednesday morning I say to myself, ‘Calm down. Don’t be an angry guy. Get off your lawn.’”

This season, Georgia has losses to Alabama and Ole Miss. Both of those were road games to teams ranked within the current top 10. Georgia has also, as Finebaum noted, beaten Texas and Tennessee, who are in the top 12 of the rankings

“But this committee is not serious,” Finebaum said. “There are football coaches on this committee and there is no way those football coaches can tell me or anyone else with a straight face that they really think Indiana, Penn State, Miami, schools like that are better than Georgia. It’s not possible.”

At that point, insider Heather Dinich explained some of the logic from the College Football Playoff selection committee. To this point, there has been more emphasis on losses and the eye test, as is exemplified by Indiana, than there seems to be on metrics like strength of record.

“We shouldn’t [be fine with that logic]. Listen, just because there are new members on the committee doesn’t mean they have to do a lousy job and, so far, they have done a lousy job. What they’ve really done is they’ve put Georgia in a box because Georgia doesn’t have another quality opponent, although they’re playing a team in two weeks that beat Miami. They don’t have a route to get higher,” Finebaum said. “Why is that important? Yeah, they’re in the Playoff, but they’ll start the Playoff on the road at Penn State, at Indiana, at one of these schools that, in my opinion, really haven’t done anything. If Indiana has a great game Saturday, good for them, but I don’t think they will and they should not be where they are based on their schedule so far because they have beaten no one so far.”

Georgia has two regular season games remaining against UMass and Georgia Tech. Assuming that the Bulldogs win both of those games, they’ll be in a good position to make the Playoff but there could be some concerns about seeding.

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Tane Bidois from Sydney, Australia, has signed a letter of intent to swim and study at the University of Georgia. He will arrive in Athens in the second half of the 2024-25 season.

“The team is like one big family. It’s definitely a move out of my comfort zone but having never swam in short course yards before, I’m looking forward to going fast and experiencing the NCAA hype.”

Bidois graduated from Knox Grammar School in December 2022. He had previously committed to Arizona for fall 2024 but requested a release from his NLI and will now begin at Georgia in January.

He swims year-round with the club team Knox Pymble Swim Club and specializes mainly in freestyle and backstroke. At the Australian Short Course Championships in September, he placed 6th in the 50 back, 21st in the 50 free, 21st in the 100 free, and 25th in the 100 back and updated his SCM times in the 50 free (22.02), 100 free (49.29), 50 back (24.78), and 100 back (54.04).

In long course, Bidois qualified for Australian Olympic Trials in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 back. He finaled in the 50 free (14th) and clocked a PB in the 100 back (56.25), coming in 17th in prelims. At the Australian Open Championships in April, he finaled in the 50 free (13th), 100 free (24th), 50 back (10th), 100 back (11th), and 50 fly (16th). He improved his best times in the 50 free (22.67), 100 free (50.10), 50 back (26.12), 100 back (56.43, which he lowered at Trials), and 50 fly (24.43).

Bidois represented Australia at the 9th World Aquatics Junior Championships in Netanya in September 2023, making the semi-finals in the 50 free and swimming a leg on the 4×100 free relay.

Describing his motivation for his decision, Bidois told SwimSwam, “I think for me my decision was based off the opportunity to swim and study in the one place, being surrounded by a super positive and uplifting culture. I perform well in the pool when I’m surrounded by people/coaches with the same goals and motivation as me so when I visited Georgia last month I felt right at home and knew that this was the right place for me. I like to live by the rule to never have any regrets – you never know until you try, so after visiting I knew it was a no brainer.”

Bidois will join the Bulldogs’ class of 2028 with divers Aiden Sadler and Bo Bridges and swimmers Drew Hitchcock (#5 in the class of 2024), Elliot Woodburn, Kyler Heffner, and Will Gavin.

Best LCM times (converted):

• 50 free – 22.67 (19.70)
• 100 free – 50.10 (43.69)
• 50 back – 26.12 (22.99)
• 100 back – 56.25 (49.59)
• 50 fly – 24.43 (21.37)

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