Brazil: Last rancher on trial for US nun's murder

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil: Last rancher on trial for US nun's murder
47 mins ago

RIO DE JANEIRO – The last defendant accused of ordering the 2005 murder of U.S. nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang is on trial in Brazil.

Stang was a Dayton, Ohio, native who worked for three decades to preserve the rain forest and defend poor settlers' land rights.

Prosecutors say Rancher Regivaldo Galvao helped orchestrate Stang's killing because she blocked him and another rancher from taking land the government gave to poor farmers. Earlier this month, rancher Vitalmiro Moura was sentenced to 30 years for his role in planning the 73-year-old Stang's murder.

The confessed gunman is serving a 28-year sentence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_missionary_killed

http://www.diariodopara.com.br.nyud.net:8090/imagensdb/214855taradaoadauto_rodriguesbv.jpg http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br.nyud.net:8090/fotos/reg1.jpg

Regivaldo Galvao

http://www.clickpb.com.br.nyud.net:8090/artigos/sendtmp/20080507072446/destaque/ww.jpg http://www.abril.com.br.nyud.net:8090/imagem/bida-dorothy-stang-436.jpg

The other rancher, already in prison, Vitalmiro Moura

http://www.clubeletras.net.nyud.net:8090/blog/images/DorothyStangmorta.jpg http://marianist.com.nyud.net:8090/nlimages/stang-dorothy-v5-02.jpg http://www.edlc.org.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/sister-dorothy-stang.jpg

Sister Dorothy Stang

[Peace Patriot]

1. The small timers get punished; the big timers get off, in Brazil, just like here.

Brazil's Top Court: Amnesty Law Will Not Change
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x35480
(i.e., the killers and torturers of the rightwing junta remain free).

It's interesting, though, that Brazil had to pass a law to immunize its big time, rich, mass killers and torturers, and here, they get off because...well, because "we need to look forward, not backward." I was thinking that Obama should apply that legal 'principle' to all prisoners--and empty the jails.

To "too big to fail" we need to add "too powerful to prosecute." It's a course at Harvard Law School now.