MOTHER SLAIN AT ANTI-CRIME VIGIL IN CHIHUAHUA

A Woman Protesting the Release of Her Child's Suspected Killer Is
Chased and Shot.

Outraged when judges freed the main suspect in her daughter's
killing, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz launched a one-woman protest across
the street from government offices in northern Mexico.

Now she is dead too.

In a brazen killing caught on video, a gunman chased Escobedo and
shot her at close range Thursday night in front of the governor's
office building in the capital of Chihuahua state.

The slaying drew condemnations from politicians and human rights
activists and appeared to be fresh evidence of the impunity with
which criminals operate across much of Mexico.

Amnesty International blamed "the negligence of state and federal
authorities" for what it called reprisal attacks against activists
and relatives of crime victims. "The deficiencies of the judicial
system in cases of murdered women and girls have been demonstrated
once again," the group said in a statement Friday.

Escobedo's 16-year-old daughter, Rubi Frayre, was slain and
dismembered in 2008. The main suspect was her live-in boyfriend,
Sergio Barraza, who was captured a year later in the state of Zacatecas.

Although Barraza confessed to the killing, he was exonerated in May
by a three-judge panel that found insufficient evidence after a
U.S.-style trial with oral arguments in the state capital, also
called Chihuahua. Another court reversed the verdict, finding Barraza
guilty, but he remains at large.

Escobedo loudly denounced the first court's ruling and has begged
state authorities for justice. This month, she planted herself in
front of the governor's office.

She had said she received threats from Barraza and his family but
refused to hide.

"What's the government waiting for -- that he come and finish me?"
Escobedo said in an interview outside the governor's palace that was
posted on a website. "Then let him kill me, but here in front to see
if it makes them ashamed."

Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte said Escobedo had gathered evidence that
Barraza was in Zacatecas with members of the Zetas drug gang.
Authorities indicated that Barraza was a suspect in the mother's slaying.

Duarte said he would seek the removal of the three judges in the case
and ask to have them stripped of immunity from possible prosecution.

"He confessed to the killing and reported the place where the remains
of Mrs. Escobedo's daughter could be found. This is what no one can
understand -- the irresponsibility of these judges who set free a
highly dangerous subject," Duarte said in a radio interview.

The video, aired on Mexican television, shows a man in dark clothing
chasing Escobedo in the darkness as she sprints across the street
toward the governor's office, which was closed at the time. Escobedo
flops to the sidewalk as the shooter races to jump into a waiting sedan.

Chihuahua has been a pioneer in Mexico in rolling out a new system of
trials, which resemble U.S. adversarial proceedings because
prosecutors have to prove cases in open court.

The new system means tougher standards of evidence than under
Mexico's traditional trials, which are decided behind closed doors by
judges relying largely on written filings from both sides.