Murder of Sandeela Kanwal

Sandeela Kanwal was a Pakistani woman living in the Atlanta metropolitan area in Clayton County, Georgia, who was murdered by her father Chaudhry Rashid[1] in an honor killing, on July 6, 2008.

Background

Kanwal, aged 25, worked at a Wal-Mart, while her father, Chaudhry Rashid,[1] born in a village in Pakistan,[2] aged 54 and holding United States permanent residency, ran a pizza restaurant in East Point, Georgia.[3] At the time Rashid was married to a woman who was not Kanwal's mother.[4] Rashid's main languages were Punjabi and Urdu. Kanwal and her father lived in a house in Clayton County, near Jonesboro, with their respective spouses and family members.[3][5]

Kanwal had wed her husband in Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan on March 14, 2002. In November 2005, Kanwal and her brother purchased the Clayton County house.[3] Circa April 2008, Kanwal and her husband held a marriage ceremony in Pakistan, but the two moved to different cities in the U.S. after her wedding, with the husband moving to Chicago.[1] She resided with her father and did not see her husband after arriving in the U.S.[4] On April 15, they separated, and she filed for divorce on July 1.[3]

A police report stated that from circa May until Kanwal's death, the father and daughter did not communicate with one another.[6] The evening of her death, while the father was driving his daughter back to the house from a late shift at the Wal-Mart, the two had an argument.[7]

Crime and punishment

In the early hours of July 6, 2008, Kanwal's father strangled her with a bungee cord.[1] Her body was left in a bedroom on the house's second floor.[8] Rashid burned the bungee cord and flushed the ashes down the toilet, leaving authorities without a murder weapon.[9][1]

The killer's wife called police after leaving the house because she heard screaming in a language incomprehensible to her.[10] Rashid experienced a seizure upon his arrest and was jailed after being hospitalized briefly.[1] The arrest warrant stated that the father said that the divorce caused the family to lose honor.[11]

Due to Rashid's lack of English fluency, he had a court-appointed translator. He expressed a desire to follow Islamic dietary laws while in the county jail.[3] In the trial Rashid's legal team admitted that he committed homicide, but stated that he had no plans to do so and was only spurred by momentary anger.[2] Rashid's lawyers argued that it was not an honor killing.[9]

Rashid was convicted of felony and malice murder and aggravated assault in May 2011, a decision that took jurors four hours. He got a life imprisonment sentence with parole eligibility.[2] Rashid appealed his conviction on the basis that it was wrong for jurors to review footage of his interviews held at a police station. In 2013 the Georgia Supreme Court upheld Rashid's conviction.[12]

See also
Honor killings of people of Pakistani heritage outside of Pakistan:

References
  1. "Man Accused Of Killing Daughter For Family Honor". National Public Radio. 2009-01-26. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  2. "Jonesboro man convicted of killing daughter". Clayton News Daily. 2011-05-05. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  3. Jefcoats, Kathy (2008-07-08). "I'm innocent, says man held in daughter's death". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2008-07-11. Retrieved 2019-12-21. Utah Drive house - Utah Drive is outside of the Jonesboro city limits.
  4. Glanton, Dahleen; Antonio Olivo (2008-07-08). "'Honor killing' alleged in Ga". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  5. See U.S. Census Bureau maps of the Jonesboro city limits: This map from the 2000 U.S. Census, and this map is from the 2010 U.S. Census. Utah Drive is south of the Jonesboro city limits.
  6. Miller, Maureen (2008-07-08). "Evening Buzz: Honor Killing?". AC360. CNN. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  7. Pickel, Mary Lou; Kathy Jefcoats (2008-07-11). "Woman killed over divorce". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2008-10-09. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  8. "Dad charged with murdering reluctant bride". CNN. 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  9. Jefcoats, Kathy (2008-08-06). "Lawyers: Case no 'honor killing'". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2009-04-03.
  10. Jefcoats, Kathy (2008-07-06). "Police: Arranged marriage led father to kill daughter". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  11. Pickel, Mary Lou; Kathy Jefcoats (2008-07-10). "Warrant: Man killed daughter, says she 'disgraced' family". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  12. "Georgia Supreme Court upholds honor killing conviction, sentence". The Florida Times-Union. Associated Press. 2013-01-22. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2019-12-21.

Further reading
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