A woman convicted this week in the death of an Iowa woman could become the first to be executed in South Dakota. A Jury in Sioux Falls deliberated for eight hours before returning its decision that 43-year-old Daphne Wright was guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the slaying of Darlene VanderGiesen.
The Iowa woman was deaf and the two had met in Sioux Falls, which has South Dakota’s School for the Deaf and a large hearing-impaired population. Prosecutors say the defendant was in love with VanderGiesen and jealous, and they say she not only killed the Rock Valley native but dismembered her body. If Wright gets the death penalty when she’s sentenced, she’d become the first woman on South Dakota’s death row.