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(U.S.) St. Louis: Tina Isa America’s First “Honor Killing” ?

(U.S.) St. Louis: Tina Isa America’s “Honor Killing”
— first known U.S. “honor killing” in 1989 in St. Louis – Tina Isa, aka Palestina Isa (16 years old)
— “A daughter killed by her father for causing dishonor for her family in her father’s eyes. Earlier in the day, Tina had applied for a part-time job at a local Saint Louis Wendy’s Restaurant against her parents’ wishes, and without their permission. Recently she had begun seeing a black boy from school”
— “Tina’s father stabs her with a butcher knife 13 times in the chest, while Tina’s mother Maria holds her daughter down.”

 

Update: On December 20, 1991 both Zein and Maria Isa were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On April 1, 1993, Zein was indicted by the FBI in connection with his terrorist activities within Abu Nidal Organization, but the charges were dropped as he was already on death row for his daughter’s murder. He later died of diabetes complications on February 17, 1997. Maria’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole; she died April 30, 2014, at a Vandalia, MO, prison at age 70