When a judge in Georgia sentenced Jose Ibarra, Laken Riley’s killeron 10 counts and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, politicians and pundits across the country expressed frustration that he was not sentenced to death.

During a nearly four-day trial, prosecutor Sheila Ross brought 29 witnesses to the stand to prove that Ibarra brutally attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Augusta University who was jogging on University of Georgia campus by hitting her head with large stones and possibly strangling her.

But Georgia Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez decided not to pursue the death penalty against Ibarra in May, about three months after Riley’s murder, saying in a May 31 news release that the decision to seek life without parole instead of death was “reached after careful consideration with the senior prosecutor and support from the victim’s family.”

“Our ultimate duty is to ensure that justice is served and that the victim’s family is an integral part of the deliberation process,” Gonzalez said in a statement at the time. “We understand that there will be those outside of this office who disagree with our decision and seek to exploit this case for political gain. However, the integrity of our judicial process and the pursuit of justice must always trump political considerations.”

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Soros-backed Georgia DA Deborah Gonzalez lost a 2024 re-election bid. (X)

Fox News contributor and former prosecutor Ted Williams, who also worked as a homicide detective in Washington, DC, called Gonzalez’s decision “absolutely outrageous.”

“This person should burn her bar card,” Williams said. “Every case, and this case, should have been settled, and a death penalty decision should have been made on the merits. This is bloody outrageous.”

He added that “the death penalty is left to the discretion of the local prosecutor under Georgia law.”

Jose Ibarra appears at his arraignment in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

“A prosecutor should make a decision about whether to seek the death penalty because of the brutality and violence of the murder,” Williams explained. “Political bias should never factor into that decision. Unfortunately, Prosecutor Deborah Gonzalez failed Hope Riley in death by not seeking the death penalty against Jose Ibarra. If ever there was a case that called for the death penalty, this was it.”

“Ibarra violently murdered Laken Riley. He stalked Laken and took a rock and smashed her skull.”

– Ted Williams

Republican Georgia State Rep. Houston Gaines told Fox News Digital that if the death penalty had been on the table, Ibarra may have opted for an indictment instead of life without parole, and a trial revealing the graphic details of Riley’s murder would not have been necessary.

Deborah Gonzalez, DA for Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit, participates in the inaugural Athens Pride Parade in downtown Athens, Ga., on June 12, 2022. (Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network)

“(I)f there was ever a case to pursue the death penalty, this is a case to consider,” Gaines said. “At least leave it on the table … make the defendant plead to life without parole.”

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In 2020, when the George Soros-backed prosecutor — a former state representative — took office as DA, she voiced opposition to the death penalty.

“I do not support the death penalty. It is cruel and humane.”

– Deborah Gonzalez

“I do not support the death penalty. It is cruel and humane,” Gonzalez said in a Sept. 23, 2020, post on X. “As the DA of #athensga I will not seek it in any prosecution. An eye for an eye argument does not make our society whole. Restorative justice does.”

Laken Riley’s final moments were captured on a UGA track camera on Feb. 22. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

On her first day in office, Gonzalez’s office outlined some of her new initiatives, which included not seeking the death penalty, in a memo her office sent to Georgia State Legislature at that time. Gaines shared parts of the memo on X in February after Riley’s murder, urging the DA to pursue the death penalty.

In that message, Gonzalez said she would “consider the consequences for undocumented defendants,” or in other words, the negative effects of criminal convictions for illegal immigrants.

“District Attorney Gonzalez is wrong when he included in her decision not to seek the death penalty ‘side effects for undocumented defendants,'” Williams said. “It is outrageous to think that any DA sworn to uphold the law and looking at the facts of this case would consider how undocumented defendants must be dealt with in the criminal justice system. A decision to seek the death penalty should be based solely on the individual merits of a case and not whether a person is undocumented.”

Gonazlez, who lost re-election in 2024, decided not to prosecute the Ibarra case and turned it over to Special Prosecutor Ross, who obtained a summary conviction after the nearly four-day trial.

Gonzalez drew criticism from Gov. Brian Kemp and other local politicians for her failure to obtain a single conviction in a criminal jury trial over the course of her term, WSBT-TV first reported in February.

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Houston Gaines has criticized Deborah Gonzalez’s decision not to pursue the death penalty in Jose Ibarra’s criminal trial for the murder of Augusta University student Laken Riley. (Gaines/ © Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network)

“She made the decision before the case even happened,” Gaines said of Gonzalez’s stance against the death penalty. “When you come into office and you make public policy statements, that’s the issue. … Again, you have individuals coming into our community like Jose Ibarra because … we’re a community that has welcomed individuals who are illegally in this country and who commit serious crimes and they know that violent criminals are more likely to get away with it in Athens than in other places.”

Gaines also noted that Gonzalez “only has a couple of attorneys left in the office because they’ve had 35 layoffs for 17 positions over the last few years.”

“They have had a turnover of over 200%,” said the state representative. “So, she really has no lawyers left in her office, and they couldn’t handle this case.”

Gonzalez’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross presents her closing arguments before Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard during the trial of Jose Ibarra in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Ibarra illegally entered the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released to the United States via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News. He lived briefly in New York City, where he was arrested in 2023 for child endangerment. He and his 29-year-old brother, Diego Ibarra, were also previously charged with shoplifting in Athens.

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Jose, Diego and their younger brother, Agenis, lived in an apartment building less than half a mile from the park on campus where Riley ran on the morning of February 22. Their apartment complex backed up to a shortcut that leads to running trails along UGA’s campus where Riley was found dead in a wooded area, partially naked and covered in leaves, that afternoon. She died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner.

Diego, who worked briefly at a UGA cafeteria before his February arrest, had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the United States, the Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.