With Heller Ehrman attorney Jeff Hsu in attendance, the third trial- of one of the two ranchers accused of conspiring to assassinate Sister Dorothy- took place in May 2007. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, was convicted and sentenced to the maximum of thirty years in prison.
A Step Backward
In December 2007, a Brazilian appeals court annulled the conviction of triggerman Rayfran das Neves Sales. Incredibly, Sales was granted a new trial because he had not been allowed to put forward evidence of self-defense. And convicted rancher de Moura was granted a mandatory retrial because he was a first offender sentenced to more than twenty years imprisonment.
At the second trial for the two men held in May 2008, Sales claimed that he had acted alone and in self-defense, contradicting his previous testimony in which he said he had used de Moura’s gun. The jury convicted Sales, but acquitted de Moura by a vote of 5-2. The Stang family expressed its outrage. Large protests immediately ensued. The government appealed the decision, and in April 2009, a three-judge panel annulled the acquittal decision, and ordered a retrial of both de Moura and Sales.
Justice to the masterminds
In April 2010, in his third trial, Moura was found guilty of murdering Sister Dorothy and sentenced to a thirty-year term. In February 2011, the Superior Tribunal of Justice (STJ) denied Moura’s petitions aimed at annulling the trial in which he was convicted. In June 2011, the Supreme Federal Tribunal denied another petition in which Moura claimed the right to remain free until the case was finally resolved.
In May 2010, the mastermind of the killing- rancher Regivaldo Galvao- was finally convicted, also receiving a thirty-year jail sentence. Galvao had managed to avoid trial for years through legal maneuvers. He had briefly been arrested and detained in early 2009 when it was discovered that contrary to his earlier assertions, he had in fact filed claims with Brazil’s land reform agency seeking title to land that Sister Dorothy was defending, thus providing a possible motive for his involvement in her murder.
The Fight Continues
The convictions of the five men involved in Sister Dorothy´s murder are historic achievements and a blow against the tradition of impunity for human rights violations in lawless Para state, sometimes described as the “epicenter” of impunity in the Americas. Between 1985 and 2010, 408 crimes related to illegal logging and land ownership have been reported in Para, leaving 612 victims. From these cases, only fifteen people have been tried, and twenty-four people convicted: eleven masterminds and thirteen material authors.
Regivaldo Galvao, albeit convicted at first instance, was granted the right to stay free until the appeal he has presented is decided by a higher court. Rayfran Sales, the triggerman, was authorized in 2010 to serve his jail term in a semi-open regime (he is free during the day and spends the night in jail).
The fight is far from over. Crimes against environmental defenders continue to be committed in the state of Para, and elsewhere in the Brazilian Amazon. On May 24, 2011, José Claudio Ribeiro and Maria do Espirito Santo, who had been denouncing illegal logging, were ambushed and murdered. Three other murders of the same type were reported the same week.
Sister Dorothy Stang
- Sister Dorothy Stang