Conviction in Brazil forest killing voided

A Brazilian appeals panel has thrown out the conviction of the confessed gunman in the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, an elderly U.S. missionary who championed the cause of poor settlers in the Amazon.

An appeals court confirmed Tuesday that it annulled the conviction in October of Rayfran das Neves Sales, saying the court in his second trial improperly rejected the farmhand’s claim of self-defense, court officials said. Sales was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the February 2005 killing.

Despite the latest ruling, Sales will remain imprisoned, the court said, pending a retrial, his third trial in the case.

Sales said he was threatened by the petite 73-year-old Roman Catholic nun.

In court testimony, Sales contended he panicked when he confronted the nun on a dirt track and she pulled a Bible out of her bag, saying that was her “weapon.”

Sales testified that he thought the nun might be reaching for a weapon. He shot her six times at point-blank range with a .38-caliber revolver, authorities said. The last five bullets struck Stang when she was on the ground, testimony showed.

“The Stang family is appalled that this killer gets another trial, wasting the energy and time of the state,” David Stang, 70, a former missionary priest in Africa, said by telephone from his home in Colorado. “Why does the killer have more rights than my sister? We fear this could be the beginning of the unraveling of two years of trials.”

Brazilian authorities say cattlemen paid Sales and an accomplice the equivalent of about $25,000 to eliminate Stang, who was aiding settlers in their land battle against cattle interests. Sales denied being offered any money.

Three other suspects -- Sales’ accomplice, a middleman and a rancher -- have already been convicted in connection with the murder and are serving lengthy prison terms. Another rancher accused as a conspirator in the case remains free on bail. Prosecutors say cattlemen conspired to kill the “old woman” because she stood in the way of their development plans for a disputed parcel of forestland.

Human rights activists have hailed the convictions as blows against the longtime impunity of wealthy land speculators in the Amazon rain forest. In the last three decades, authorities say, only a handful of convictions have resulted from hundreds of killings arising from land conflicts in the region.

The murder of Stang drew international attention to the battle for territory in the sprawling Amazon, where settlers, ranchers, miners, indigenous people and others compete for land.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Special correspondent Soares reported from Sao Paulo and Times staff writer McDonnell from Buenos Aires.