Prosecutor to mull death penalty opposition in nuns’ slaying
DURANT, Miss. — A Mississippi prosecutor said she hasn’t decided whether to seek the death penalty for a man charged with killing two nuns who dedicated their lives to helping people in one of the poorest counties in the nation.
Relatives and colleagues of Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill have publicly expressed their opposition to execution. A judge denied bond Monday to Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, who is charged with two counts of capital murder, one count of burglary and one count of grand larceny.
Capital murder under Mississippi law is a killing committed along with another felony. It is punishable by execution by lethal injection or by life in prison.
Held and Merrill, both 68, were found stabbed to death in their home in Durant after they failed to show up to work last Thursday at a medical clinic in nearby Lexington, where they were nurse practitioners.