Annika Östberg

Annika Maria Östberg Deasy, born 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden is a Swedish citizen currently incarcerated in California, USA for an undetermined period (25 years to life sentence). She was convicted for felony murder of a restaurant guest and a police officer in 1981. [http://www.thelocal.se/1531/20050601/ "Cop killer" Östberg fails in parole bid] . The Local (citing Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen, Aftonbladet), June 1, 2005] [http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,125080,00.html Annika Östberg kvar i fängelse i USA] (in Swedish), Aftonbladet, January 22, 2002] [http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,692076,00.html "Annika – en ond mördare"] (in Swedish), Aftonbladet, August 31, 2005]

Childhood and marriage

Annika Östberg grew up in Hässelby in Stockholm, but moved together with her mother to California in the 1960s. When she became older she escaped from home and ran away to San Francisco, where she became a drug addict. She married Brian Deasy and left drugs, but when the marriage failed she fell back to drugs.

Press and sentence's background

The Annika Östberg case has upset many Scandinavians since it is claimed that she was not armed and did not commit any murder herself, despite indisputable facts of her active participation in the murders, both during and after the factFact|date=September 2008. She implied that she did the killings in statements to the police. Some believe that if she was convicted in her home country she would get 6-7 years imprisonment, despite the very similar " [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malexandermorden Malexander] " case in which Andreas Axelsson has been denied a fixed-length sentence in the murder of two Swedish policemen. Another case in Sweden, the Åmsele murders 1988, the girlfriend got two years for doing nothing to prevent her boyfriend to do a triple murder, one after another. The difference was that the boyfriend there got lifetime in prison. He still sits there. In the Annika Deasy case her boyfriend committed suicide in jail, leaving Annika to be the only to be convicted. Under California law Annika is just as culpable as her boyfriend because she was an active participant. Her lawyers negotiated a plea bargain that spared her from a death sentence.

entence

In 1983, Annika Deasy received a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1981 murders. At this time it was customary for well-behaved prisoners to be set free after serving approximately half of their sentence. Documents from that period indicate that Annika Deasy's lawyers believed she could be out after 12 ½ years. However, politics changed throughout the years, and as the sentencing laws changed, so did the mindset of the Board of Prison Terms and the Governors office in Sacramento. Previously, life prisoners served their sentences according to the law and their behavior in prison, however, this was not the case after 2000.

Parole hearings

In 2005, the Board of Prison Terms, which determines whether parole should be granted, grants very few. The very few prisoners who receive a grant of parole, are then 'generally' denied by the Governor.Östberg was denied parole or serving the remainder of her sentence in Sweden in 1997, 2002 and 2005. She can apply again in 2008, and on september 18, 2008 she will attend her next parole hearing. [http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=828036&rss=2216] The hearing could result in Annika being released,being transferred to a Swedish prison or being forced into continued jailtime in the Californian prison..

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied in an interview in August 2005 with the state Swedish television to let her be transferred to Sweden for serving the remaining period in her native country. Governor Schwarzenegger stated that Mrs. Deasy is "an evil murderer who has to serve her penalty".

Campaigns

Campaigns both in the United States and in Scandinavia urge for her sentence to be time determined and that she be allowed to serve the remaining imprisonment in her home country, saying that the sentence was inhumane as Östberg wasn't the one who actually killed the policeman, and also claiming that Östberg has served enough time for her involvement in the murders and that California is showing bad will by not releasing her.

Literature

* Biography "Sorgfågel" by Swedish journalist Lena Katarina Swanberg.

References

External sources

* [http://www.annikadeasy.org Annika Deasy Homepage]
* [http://www.dreamwater.org/jaget/page42.html About annika, dreamwater.org]