Damn, this is depressing as hell. Last week in Southern California, a woman was sentenced to death for murdering her husband and two young sons in 2007: Manling Williams sentenced to death for murder of husband, sons in Rowland Heights.

Manling Tsang Williams, who was 29 at the time, suffocated her 3-year-old and 7-year-old sons while they slept, then stabbed her husband to death -- nearly a hundred times -- with a samurai sword. She apparently did all this so that she could be with her lover.

"The evidence is compelling that the defendant, for selfish reasons, murdered her own two children," Martinez said.

Her motivation, Martinez said, was a "narcissistic, selfish and adolescent" desire to start a new life with another man, free from the hindrances of family life.

In the months before the murders, Manling Williams had reconnected through the Internet with an old friend and began a relationship with him.

The judge pointed out that Manling Williams had numerous family members who would have taken in the children, should she have decided to abandon them.

After smothering Devon and Ian in their bunk bed, "The defendant savagely, brutally and viciously attacked her husband with a katana sword," Martinez said.

Neal Williams was stabbed and slashed more than 97 times in the attack, investigators said.

"In the final moments of life, Neal begged the defendant for help," the judge said.

Reading about this case gives me the creeps in a way I can't express. I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I'm inclined to believe there is a special place in hell reserved for Manling Tsang Williams. More here: Woman Who Smothered Her Kids and Killed Husband With Sword to Be With Lover Gets Death Penalty.