Arizona governor: I misspoke about beheaded bodies

September 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Gov. Jan Brewer rose to national fame defending the state’s immigration law and warning of rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, including a claim that headless bodies were turning up in the Arizona desert.

But the claim has come back to haunt her after her stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up and ignored repeated questions on the issue from reporters.

Brewer has spent the time since backtracking and trying to repair the damage done from her cringe- worthy debate against 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 violence in Mexico in comments she made earlier this summer about decapitated bodies in the state.

In April, Brewer signed a controversial state law that put local police on the front lines of enforcing federal immigration law.

Brewer stumbled through her opening statement of the debate Wednesday. She lost her train of thought for more than 10 painful seconds as she laughed, looked down at the table and finally regained her composure.

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 the immigration law.

In a June 27 interview on Phoenix TV station KPNX, she was asked about the earlier 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.

None of the southern Arizona coroners who handle immigrant cases have said they’ve seen headless bodies.