MSNBC has faced widespread backlash after publishing an opinion piece sympathizing with the killer of Laken Riley.
Legal analyst Danny Cevallos came under fire for his take on the Georgia nursing student’s brutal murder and the trial of Jose Ibarra, 25, an illegal immigrant and member of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, published under a headline saying he ‘never stood a chance.’
Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday, as a judge found him guilty after hearing volumes of damning evidence, including Ibarra’s DNA found under Laken’s fingernails from when she fought for her life.
The 22-year-old was beaten and strangled to death in February near the University of Georgia campus after Ibarra attacked her when she was out on a morning run.
The murder also became central to the issue of immigration in the presidential election, as conservatives blamed the Biden administration’s weak border policies for releasing Ibarra into the country in 2022.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Cevallos argued that ‘for all the political controversy, the outcome of this trial was never in doubt.’
Cevallos went on to detail how Ibarra’s conviction was a certainty because of technicalities in the legal system, sparking anger from those who say he brushed over the savage murder.
The president elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr. led the backlash, tweeting in response: ‘You literally can’t make up this level of depravity.’
After facing outrage over the op-ed, MSNBC appeared to change the headline of the article on Friday morning to: ‘The guilt of Laken Riley’s killer was never in doubt.’
Trump Jr. continued: ‘These people are sick. The guy is a murderer. He’s an illegal alien that killed an innocent young woman, but MSNBC would rather go to bat for him.’
Joe Rogan also waded into the controversy, sharing an image of the article’s headline with a savage six-word response: ‘What the f*** is this s***.’
In his op-ed, Cevallos noted that that Ibarra requested a bench trial, meaning his fate was decided by a single judge rather than a jury, because of the clear evidence against him.
‘For the defense, this was a hopeless case,’ Cevallos then sympathized. ‘The defense did the best it could with bad facts.’
While acknowledging Ibarra’s defense stood ‘no chance with a jury’, Cevallos appeared to imply that the killer’s bench trial was somehow stacked against him.
‘But it apparently had no chance with the judge, either, since he was convicted anyway,’ he wrote.
The legal analyst argued that the bench trial was still Ibarra’s ‘best chance’ at having the chance at parole down the line – even while conservatives fumed at the decision not to seek the death penalty in his case.
Cevallos concluded his piece by summing up the technicalities of Ibarra’s case, explaining that the killer will serve consecutive sentences instead of concurrently, which went against Georgia law, offering ‘the best glimpse into the judge’s opinion of this defendant.’
The opinion piece was quickly met with backlash, with many taking issue with the headline and branding it an attempt at ‘engagement farming.’
‘Disgusting article headline suggesting the killer was convicted for reasons other than he did it,’ one critic said on X.
Cevallos shared his take to his X account, and took a matter-of-fact line as he captioned it: ‘The Jose Ibarra murder case was open and shut. Here’s why even the defense knew it.’
His tweet was also met with criticism, as one X user questioned: ‘What is the point of this article?’
‘Are you somehow implying that the court proceedings were a sham? That he could in fact be ‘innocent’? Are we supposed to feel bad for him?’
‘Laken Riley never stood a chance….’ responded another.
The outrage over the op-ed comes after the nation watched droves of horrifying evidence and heartbreaking victim impact statements presented at Ibarra’s trial over the past week.
Riley’s devastated family shared stories of the 22-year-old and what Ibarra tore from them, including a poignant moment at the conclusion of the trial where her stepfather John Phillips shared one of her last diary entries.
Phillips revealed that she wrote a ‘letter to my future husband’ shortly before she was killed, and addressed Ibarra as he said ‘Laken’s life was abundantly and exceptionally full of promise.’
The entry opened: ‘To my future husband – as silly as I feel writing this, my old small group leader once recommended it, so here I am.
‘I want you to know I’m thinking about you. I’m working every day to become the best wife I can be by working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids one day.
‘I am focusing on God and what he defines as a faithful Christian wife so that I can best embody those characteristics.
‘I pray that you know that is with my full faith and trust in God, that I know this relationship has been handcrafted by him.’
The reading brought an emotional response from the court in the same hearing where Ibarra learned he would spend the rest of his life behind bars.