CALGARY, Alberta, June 30 (UPI) -- A mother convicted of strangling her teenage daughter should not be incarcerated, her attorney told a judge in Calgary, Alberta, Wednesday.
Defense lawyer Alain Hepner argued his client, Aset Magomadova, 39, a Chechen Muslim refugee who came to Canada in 2003, should not go to prison because her husband was killed in Chechnya's conflict and she has a son with muscular dystrophy, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"If you apply the rule of law and the principles that I spent the last 2 1/2 hours talking about, there is room for -- I wouldn't say compassion -- it's just the appropriate, fit sentence," Hepner said after the hearing.
But prosecutor Mac Vomberg countered that the domestic violence case required a strong prison sentence -- 12 years -- saying Magomadova abused her position of trust and authority, and her actions must be strongly condemned.
"Compassion is one element," Vomberg said. "We also have to consider who the victims are here. We have one dead person. What compassion was shown to her?"
Magomadova was found guilty of manslaughter in October for the February 2007 killing of her 14-year-old daughter Aminat at their home.
Presiding Judge Sal LoVecchiol, who has yet to decide on her punishment, told the court Tuesday he was struggling with the decision whether to send the mother to prison, the Calgary Herald reported.
"You're suggesting every time a deterrent is needed, jail is necessary?" LoVecchio asked prosecutors. "Are you saying she's a risk to go out and kill somebody else?"
