Heller Ehrman Lawyers Press the Investigation and Prosecution

EDLC was asked by Sister Dorothy's family in the U.S. to seek representation on their behalf from an American law firm. The Heller Ehrman firm agreed to represent Dorothy’s brother, David Stang, and his seven living siblings in their continuing effort to ensure that all those responsible for their sister’s murder are identified, tried in a fair process, and ultimately punished.

In September 2005, the lawyers traveled to Brazil for the first time with David Stang to meet with high level government officials, including a federal prosecutor, federal ministers, Senators and Congressmen, and the Presidents of both the state court system of Pará and the Brazilian Supreme Court. The goal was to pressure them to fully and properly investigate and prosecute Dorothy Stang’s assassins.

During the visit, the lawyers pressed for a change in venue for the trial so that the case would be heard in Belém, the capital of Pará, rather than in a remote town run by corrupt ranchers and loggers. They urged the state court to consolidate the case and try all five suspects in custody together; argued that the case be federalized; and pushed for the investigators to continue to search for the remaining conspirators responsible for Dorothy's death. The Brazilian news media had extensive and daily coverage of the visit, and the case has received international coverage in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Three trials, four convictions

The trial of the two gunmen was transferred to Belém in October 2005. On December 10, 2005, the men were tried together and convicted of Dorothy's murder, despite recanting earlier videotaped confessions. Rayfran das Neves Sales, the triggerman, received a sentence of twenty-eight years, while his accomplice was sentenced to seventeen years in prison. One of the men acknowledged that his employer had given him the gun the day before the murder and told him to kill the nun, and the jury issued a crucial finding that the men had been promised to be paid for the killing.

In April 2006, Amair Feijoli da Cunha, the middleman responsible for coordinating the assassination, was convicted in the second trial in the case. The jury returned a conviction with a sentence of twenty-seven years in prison, but the sentence was reduced to eighteen years because of his cooperation with the prosecutors.

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Sister Dorothy Stang

Everybody, in a very democratic way, can share in this world’s gifts. Some people are taking off so much of the pleasures in this world, and there’s only so much to go around.

- Sister Dorothy Stang