Summary: In 2005, a nun by the name of Dorothy Stang was executed by a group of brazilians and one of the killers has been recently sentenced to 30 years in prison. The man who was charged is named Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, and was a rancher in Brazil up to his imprisonment in 2010. He was tried three times prior to this prosecution, with up to 30 years of jail time but all of the cases were appealed. The defense intends to appeal again on his behalf. Prosecutors made the case that Moura and another rancher hired hit men to kill Stang in 2005. The defense claimed that there was insufficient evidence to pin Moura for the murder. The trial was a fast one due to previous trials having already taken care of the legal work involved. The other rancher charged with planning Stangs murder was sentenced to 30 years in prison as well, in 2010. The confessed killer of Stang was released after only serving under 9 of his 27 year sentence. He is to with-go the rest of his sentence under house arrest. Stang was an avid protector of the rainforest which ultimately led to her murder.
The reasoning behind my choosing of this article is due to ins and outs of the case itself. The death of Dorothy Stang was all the way back in 2005. Now 2013, one of the men responsible for her death is just now being sentenced. It seems to be a reoccurring trend in judicial systems around the world. Everyone is entitled to a fair trial no doubt, this goes towards our human rights. Yet on the other hand, a woman died nearly nine years ago and her family still has to endure the reminders of her, what I am assuming, horrible death. This case however is not uncommon. According to the Washington Post, more than 1,200 activists for the rain forest have suffered the same fate as Stang in the past 20-30 years. This particular topic is intriguing to me simply because it is a large deal and yet I have heard little to nothing about it in school or on the news.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/search.html
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