Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73 year old activist and nun from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, lived and worked in the Amazon rainforest in the northern Brazilian state of Pará for over 20 years.  She dedicated her life to helping rural workers fight for control of their land from loggers and ranchers.  After receiving countless death threats for years because of her work, Sister Dorothy's life came to a brutal end on the early morning of February 12, 2005, when two gunmen, known as “pistoleiros,” put six bullets in her back, head, and abdomen.

Heller Ehrman represents 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.

Five men have been arrested for Sister Dorothy's assassination, including two wealthy landowners who planned and paid for Dorothy's execution.  Undoubtedly, the murder conspiracy runs much deeper.  A Brazilian Federal Senate Commission charged with investigating the assassination alleges in its report that over 20 individuals may have been involved in the underlying conspiracy to kill Sister Dorothy and to stop the progress she made in defending the rights of the rural poor to live and work the land in federally mandated sustainable development areas. 

Unfortunately, the state of Pará is a notoriously lawless one, where landowners regularly enslave, threaten, and often murder rural workers with shocking impunity.  Activists like Sister Dorothy who labor alongside these rural workers routinely face death threats for daring to challenge the illegal activities of loggers and ranchers.  Official governmental records list over 800 rural workers and their supporters whose murders have gone uninvestigated by Brazilian law enforcement.  It is widely recognized that the actual number of murders is likely much higher.  The probability that even the five men arrested for the contract killing of Sister Dorothy will be held to account by Pará’s criminal justice system remains highly uncertain.

In September 2005, Washington D.C.’s Brent Rushforth and Jeffrey Hsu traveled to Brazil with David 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, to pressure them to fully and properly investigate and prosecute Dorothy Stang’s assassins.  During the September visit, Brent and Jeff pressed for 1) a change in venue for the trial, arguing that the case must be held in Belém, the capital of Pará, rather than in a remote town run by corrupt ranchers and loggers; 2) that the state court must consolidate the case and try all five suspects in custody together; 3) that the case should be federalized under Brazilian law in order to assure a fair trial; and 4) that investigators must continue to search for the remaining conspirators responsible for Dorothy's death.  Brent and Jeff were accompanied by Blake Rushforth, who served as an unpaid translator on the trip.

The Brazilian news media had extensive and daily coverage of Brent and Jeff’s visit, and the case has received international coverage in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.  The trial of the two pistoleiros was transferred to Belém in October 2005.  On December 9th and 10th, 2005, the two pistoleiros were tried together and were found guilty of the murder of Sister Dorothy, despite recanting earlier videotaped confessions. Their conflicting testimony in this one trial no doubt played an important role in the jury's guilty verdict.  The triggerman received a sentence of 28 years, while his accomplice was sentenced to 17 years in prison. In late April the middleman responsible for coordinating the assassination, Amair Feijoli da Cunha (nicknamed "Tato"), was convicted of the crime. The jury ultimately returned a conviction with a sentence of 27 years in prison, but it was reduced to 18 years because of his cooperation with the prosecutors. The trials of the two ranchers, the accused masterminds of the conspiracy to assassinate Sister Dorothy, as well as important procedural decisions, are expected in the coming months.

Heller Ehrman, including Washington D.C.’s Shawnmarie Mayrand-Chung, Natasha Leskovsek, Tom Kimbrell, and Emily Chatterjee, continues to represent Sister Dorothy’s family as the criminal proceedings and investigation move forward.