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Tale of Arizona desert’s decapitated corpses was not true, embattled governor admits
Gov. Jan Brewer, who gained national attention defending the state's tough new immigration law and warning of increasing border bloodshed, has spent the time since the gubernatorial candidates' debate earlier this week trying to repair the damage done from her cringe-worthy contest against underdog challenger Terry Goddard.
"That was an error, if I said that," the Republican told The Associated Press on Friday. "I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there's a lot of violence going on and we don't want that going into Arizona."
She said she was referring to beheadings and other cartel-related violence in Mexico in comments she made earlier this summer about decapitated bodies found in the state's southern region.
Goddard, who trailed by 20 points in a July poll, said he brought up the beheadings comments because Brewer hadn't acknowledged she was wrong.
"It's a kind of fear-mongering that has hurt our economy. It has driven jobs away," he said. "She wouldn't come off it."
Brewer apparently first referred to beheadings during a June 16 interview with Fox News, talking about "the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings and the fact that people can't feel safe in their community" in discussing controversy surrounding the immigration law.
She went further in a June 27 interview on Phoenix television station KPNX when asked about the earlier beheadings claim.
"Oh, our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," Brewer said.
A veteran Arizona political observer said her latest gaffes may not sway many voters but could put a charge into Goddard's campaign.
"I think it gave him an opening," said Bruce Merrill, a longtime pollster and retiredArizona State University journalism professor.
Goddard can now play the debate clips over and over as he attacks her competence to lead Arizona.
In fact, there have been beheadings in Mexico in violence associated with criminal cartels that include those active in cross-border smuggling.
And some violence has spilled over the border, including the March slaying of a southern Arizona rancher, Robert Krentz. Law enforcement officials have said they believe Krentz was killed by an illegal immigrant, likely a scout for drug smugglers.
But none of the southern Arizona coroners who handle immigrant cases have seen headless bodies.
Pima County's Dr. Eric Peters said some people might be confused when just skulls are sometimes found in the desert, but that's because of decomposition and animals that feed off bodies. He said it'd be clear if any one of those skulls had been severed from a body.
"You would find what we would call tool marks because you need to use some sort of tool to forcibly remove someone's head from the spine," he said. "You'd see saw marks," even on skulls that have long been in the desert.
A Republican legislator who was the prime sponsor of Arizona's immigration law said Brewer's critics were just playing games and ignoring the real issue — violence bleeding across the border into the United States.
"I can tell you there's been 300 to 500 beheadings and dismemberments along that border," state Sen. Russell Pearce said Thursday. "It is a national security concern, yet we're worried about this game-playing, this word-smithing."
This video is from the Associated Press, published Sept. 2, 2010.