Prosecutor: Mississippi man to plead guilty in nuns’ deaths
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A Mississippi prosecutor says a man charged with killing two nuns in 2016 will plead guilty as part of an agreement that removes the possibility of the death penalty.
District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver tells The Associated Press on Tuesday she spoke with the victims’ families before agreeing that Robert Earl Sanders could plead guilty to capital murder on June 21. She says the agreement calls for him to be sentenced to life without parole.
Malone-Oliver says the decision takes into consideration that the two women who were killed, Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, opposed the death penalty.
The nuns worked as nurse practitioners in one of the poorest parts of the U.S. They were found stabbed to death in their home after failing to show up for work.
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