Indian man gets life for black daughter-in-law death

The case of an apparent honor killing concluded with a life sentence to life in prison without parole for a native Indian father-in-law. Chiman Rai 69, an Indiana businessman and a former Maths instructor at a historically black college, Alcorn State University in Mississippi, hired hitmen to murder his son's African-American wife. Mr. Rai was upset because of the marriage of his son to a black person. According to Mr. Rai, this had dishonored and brought shame to his family within the Indian community.

A So-called honor killing is when a Muslim male family member, usually the father, murders his daughter in order to defend the family's honor. There are several reported cases of so-called honor killing with the brothers been the perpetrators.

Sparkle Reid Rai, 22-year-old, was found strangled and stabbed more than a dozen times at the couple's apartment. According to Associated Press reports, two women arrived at the apartment of Rai's son Ricky and his new wife, pretending to deliver a package. A 300-pound hit man then choked Sparkle Reid Rai with a vacuum cleaner cord and stabbed her a dozen times within earshot of her 6-month-old daughter. The man accused of stabbing a woman to death in a reputed murder-for-hire later said that he should have harmed her baby as well, according to testimony delivered in Fulton County Superior Court. He said he should have thrown the (expletive) over the rail of the balcony. According to a witness Sparkle was gagging and blood started coming out of her mouth when she while trying to reach out for her baby.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before delivering the verdict in an Atlanta area courtroom in Georgia this week.

The case had gone cold for a while but grabbed headlines as an "honor killing" after police arrested Chiman Rai and four others following a tip off two years ago. The jury had found Rai guilty on seven charges, including felony murder and burglary, convinced that he believed that the marriage would embarrass his family.

Rai immigrated with his family from India to the United States in 1970. Rai owned a supermarket and a hotel in Kentucky Mississippi where Sparkle worked as an employee.

Prosecutors claimed that it was a hate crime. "This particular murder, outrageous, wantonly vile," prosecutor Sheila Ross was quoted as saying : "The brutal murder of this young mother not only justifies but demands the death penalty."

Defense lawyer Don Samuel said while there was evidence that Rai believed his son's marriage would cast a stigma on his family in Indian society, he wasn't a racist and had strong support in the African- American community.