Brazilian judge acquits estate owner suspect in murder of US nun

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Brazilian judge acquits estate owner suspect in murder of US nun
Posted : Wed, 07 May 2008 17:46:03 GMT
Author : DPA

Rio de Janeiro - A Brazilian judge acquitted estate owner Vitalmiro Bastos Moura in the 2005 murder of US nun Dorothy Stang, in a decision that prompted criticism from legal experts on Wednesday. "Such oscillations in the judiciary are very bad. One court condemns him to the highest penalty, and another absolves him completely. That difference can, and should, be corrected at the courts," said Cezar Brito, president of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB).

The verdict was announced late Tuesday, at the end of a two-day trial in the Amazonian city of Belem. The decision overturned the result of a similar trial last year, in which the estate owner known as "Bida" was condemned to 30 years in prison for the murder of the nun in February 2005.

The nun's brother, David Stang, who travelled to Brazil from the United States for the trial, said he was "disappointed" and "surprised" at the verdict, but he vowed to keep fighting "in search of justice."

Bida's acquittal was based on changes in the testimony of a hired killer, Rayfran das Neves Sales, and an estate foreman, Amair Feijoli Cunha, who confessed to having been involved in the murder.

The two men said they killed Dorothy Stang, 74, on their own initiative, and denied that any estate owners had requested that they kill her.
Public prosecutor Edson Souza said he will appeal the decision, while the landowner left Wednesday the jail where he had been kept since May 2007.



Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/203916,brazilian-judge-acquits-estate-owner-suspect-in-murder-of-us.html

[Sam Ervin jret]

1. What? A rich guy got away with killing a woman? What does Brazil think it is? California?

Or any other piece of land on this "might makes right" , "money talks" world we live on.

I'd like to say he'll never get away with it, but....

[Octafish]

2. All Sister Dorothy was doing was protecting the Amazon and its people.

A travesty of justice, repeated far too often: The landowner uses a proxy to do his dirty work. If the proxy should be caught and spills his guts, the landdowner can claim no knowledge. If needed, he can intimidate the proxy's family for insurance. This horrible model has been repeated countless times through history. All the while, the landowner claims his hands are clean.

[Thor_MN]

3. * is going to be looking at how they got their nominations through...

"How many judges is it in a brazillion again?"

[otherlander]

4. FUCK!

Fucking FUCK!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Brazilian man acquitted in American nun's assassination

updated 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
Brazilian man acquitted in American nun's assassination



Sister Dorothy Stang works in an Amazon
forest north of Brazil in 2004. She was
killed in 2005.




Vitalmiro "Bida" Bastos de Moura sits
after his trial in Brazil's Para state
Tuesday. His conviction was dismissed.

(CNN) -- A Brazilian rancher convicted of orchestrating the 2005 killing of an American nun has been acquitted after a witness contradicted his own testimony.

A jury voted 5-2 to dismiss Vitalmiro "Bida" Bastos de Moura's conviction on charges of ordering Sister Dorothy Stang's death, according to a statement from a court in the Para state capital of Belem.

"We'll continue to fight and hope for better results," said Stang's brother, David, who traveled to Brazil for the trial.

The murder of Stang -- gunned down along a muddy road in northern Brazil's rain forest -- was often seen as emblematic of the fierce struggle for land in the Amazon region.

The 73-year-old nun from Ohio worked for more than two decades in Anapu, in northern Brazil, helping poor farmers attain a sustainable living and protecting the rain forest from ranchers and loggers.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/07/brazil.sister.dorothy/index.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. Acquittal in Nun’s Killing Provokes Outcry in Brazil

May 8, 2008
Acquittal in Nun’s Killing Provokes Outcry in Brazil
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

RIO DE JANEIRO — Human rights advocates and the Brazilian government on Wednesday sharply criticized the acquittal of a man accused of being behind the murder of an American Roman Catholic nun in the Brazilian Amazon forest.

On Tuesday, after a two-day trial, a jury in Belém, in Pará State, acquitted the man, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, of conspiracy in the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang in February 2005.

The trial was the second in which a jury had considered Mr. Moura’s role in the killing. He was convicted and sentenced in May last year to 30 years in prison on charges of ordering the killing of Sister Dorothy, 73, who was a staunch advocate of protecting the rain forest.

Under Brazilian law, a retrial is required for first offenders who are sentenced to more than 20 years. This time, the jury voted 5 to 2 to accept the defense contentions that Mr. Moura had no motive to be involved in Sister Dorothy’s killing and that it had been carried out solely by Rayfran das Neves Sales, who confessed to shooting her and is serving a 28-year sentence.

The trials of suspects in her killing have been seen as tests of Brazil’s willingness to prosecute murders over land use on the violent and largely lawless Amazon frontier. The case drew international attention because Sister Dorothy, a naturalized Brazilian, was originally from Dayton, Ohio, and she was viewed as a leader in the movement for sustainable development on par with Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who was killed in 1988.

Sister Dorothy was shot while visiting a remote encampment near the Trans-Amazon Highway in Pará, in a region known for corruption and land violence.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/world/americas/08rancher.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[Judi Lynn]

7. Lula outraged by acquittal in U.S. nun's murder case

Lula outraged by acquittal in U.S. nun's murder case
Thu May 8, 2008 8:02pm EDT

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he was outraged that a rancher convicted of ordering the murder of a U.S.-born nun was acquitted during a retrial.

A jury convicted a man accused of killing Dorothy Stang during a retrial on Tuesday. But it acquitted cattle rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura of charges he ordered the murder in a land dispute in the Amazon rainforest in February 2005.

In a previous trial, Bastos de Moura was convicted and sentenced to a 30-year prison term. Defendants have the right to a retrial for sentences above 20 years.

"As a Brazilian, as a common citizen, I'm obviously outraged with the result," Lula told reporters. He said as president he could not give "hunches" on a court decision.

"I think this testifies a little against Brazil's image abroad. I think it makes part of the society start to have doubts about the trial," Lula told reporters in Brasilia.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0852517320080509?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401



President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

[Judi Lynn]

8. Prosecutor appealing acquittal in nun's death

Prosecutor appealing acquittal in nun's death
Saturday, May 10, 2008 2:57 AM
By Jack Chang

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A Brazilian prosecutor has appealed the controversial acquittal of a rancher convicted last year of ordering the murder of U.S. nun Dorothy Stang in this country's Amazon forest.

The appeal filed Thursday in the northern Brazilian city of Belem by prosecutor Edson Cardoso de Souza seeks to cancel Tuesday's acquittal and schedule a new trial for rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, who was freed immediately after his acquittal.

"We are outraged about the acquittal because it goes against all the evidence the court in the first trial used to convict him," de Souza said.

De Souza said a panel of judges would decide whether to grant the appeal by year's end. Any new trial would begin early next year.

Stang was a 73-year-old nun and rain-forest defender born in Dayton who was fatally shot in February 2005 in the Amazonian town of Anapu, Brazil. She has become a martyr for many who are trying to protect the world's most diverse biosystem from destruction. Her trial also has come to symbolize the immunity of the region's powerful ranchers, who have violently intimidated small farmers eking out a living and activists trying to save the rainforest.

More:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2008/05/10/Stang_MCT.ART_ART_05-10-08_A9_O9A5NAF.html?sid=101

[Judi Lynn]

9. Brazil activists fear death squads back

Brazil activists fear death squads back
By MICHAEL ASTOR – 4 days ago

ABAETETUBA, Brazil (AP) — Bishop Flavio Giovenale was crushed by the acquittal last week of a rancher accused of ordering the killing of a crusading American nun — and not just because he admired Dorothy Stang.

Giovenale, who spends much of his time battling child prostitution, police corruption and drug abuse, fears the verdict means it's open season again on activists in the Amazon jungle state of Para.

The Italian priest has long received death threats for his denouncement of the organized crime he says carries more weight than the law in Abaetetuba, a teeming Amazon River port city where trucks barrel past hauling rain forest hardwood. During his three decades in Brazil, he has tried to ignore them.

But since rancher Vitalmiro Moura walked free after a retrial last week, Giovenale fears the wealthy and shadowy business interests driving deforestation of the Amazon will be emboldened to order his killing.

Last year, Moura was sentenced to 30 years in prison for ordering the killing of Stang, a 73-year-old nun from Dayton, Ohio, in a ruling seen as a watershed event ending impunity in a region where community organizers, union leaders and clergy are routinely marked for death.

For Giovenale, Stang was a hero for devoting her life to helping the poor farm without deforesting in a region plagued by wanton environmental destruction, land grabbing, contract killings, slave-like labor and rampant child prostitution.

"The acquittal showed they could kill a famous person like Dorothy, so they certainly wouldn't think twice about killing an unknown bishop like me," he said.

More:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iz-h9SSpJk4UilDHkOJKqR0sm5YgD90KPCT80