The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a 110-year sentence for a woman who had pleaded "guilty but mentally ill":
Thirty-two-year-old Magdalena Lopez pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of murder for the July 2005 deaths of her nine-year-old and two-year-old sons.
She was sentenced in August to two consecutive 55-year terms. The judge decided against allowing the sentences to be served at the same time.
The Court of Appeals agreed, citing the brutal nature of the crime.
We can't help but be reminded of the case of Judi Noe of Fort Wayne, who barely spent any time at all behind bars despite having drowned her daughter and left her decomposing corpse in the apartment for nearly three weeks. That case still baffles me, and I never quite bought the prosecutor's claim that trying her on more serious charges than the reckless homicide she pleaded guilty to would have been too risky.
