Posted on 12/17/2011 8:07:57 AM PST by KyGeezer
Two men who murdered a Welsh couple on honeymoon on Antigua have been given three consecutive life sentences but have escaped the death penalty.
Avie Howell and Kaniel Martin shot dead Ben and Catherine Mullany, who were 31 and from Pontardawe, Swansea Valley.
Justice Richard Floyd said the "cold-hearted killers" had acted with "extreme violence" but the murders were not the "worst of the worst".
Martin, 23, and Howell, 20, also shot dead a shopkeeper two weeks later.
The pair now face two more murder charges but Justice Floyd said the crimes they have been found guilty of did not justify the death penalty because they were not the "rarest of the rare or the worst of the worst".
The Mullanys were attacked in their hotel bedroom in July 2008 on the last day of their honeymoon.
Antigua's High Court, in St John's, heard that Dr Mullany died almost instantly after she was shot in the back of the head during the robbery at the Cocos Hotel.
Mr Mullany, a student physiotherapist and former soldier and policeman, was flown home to Swansea but died a week after the shooting.
They had been married for two weeks.
The couple were buried in the grounds of St John the Evangelist Church, Cilybebyll, near Pontardawe - the church where they had married.
The month following the killings, Martin and Howell were charged with their murders and that of 43-year-old Jamaican shopkeeper Woneta Anderson.
During their two-month trial earlier this year at which more than 90 witnesses gave evidence, the jury heard a bandana with Howell's saliva on it was found at Mrs Anderson's shop.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
In Britain, life does not mean life.
How many people have to be murdered in order to qualify for the death penalty according to this judge?
Weren’t they in Antigua?
Those were jokes 30 years ago.
Social justice wins again.
OH! well, I hope Antigua is serious when it says life!
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