Last week Thursday, a jury found, Patrick Robateau and Leslie Pipersburgh guilty for a second time.
Today they were sentenced. To some extent, the sentence had been foretold - last week Pipersburgh's attorney Michael Peyrefitte explained that it had to be life imprisonment because the Prosecutor did not request death by hanging from the outset.
Today, in delivering his sentence, trial judge Adolph Lucas explained that because the double murder is not the worst of the worst - he could not impose the death penalty.
Pipersburgh's attorney Peyrefitte explained when the sentencing was finished:
Jules Vasquez
"It was the chronicle of a sentence foretold."
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Pipersburg
"When I gave the interview the last time, like I have said up to that point it wasn't indicated to me that the crown would be seeking the death penalty and usually when they do from my personal experience they would indicate long before that. So it came as no surprise to me today that they did not seek the death penalty but to be fair to them the circumstances base on the law did not warrant the death penalty."
Jules Vasquez
"Now they have received that sentence as expected. Have you been in discussion with your client Mr. Pipersburg? Will he appeal?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"Well every indication to me is that he will appeal and I believe he has good grounds for appeal. So yes he will be appealing from what he told me."
Jules Vasquez
"Will you be his attorney for the appeal?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"I can't say for sure. It is not my expectation that I will be the attorney doing the appeal but he has an attorney he can choose. He can choose whosoever he wants to do the appeal for him and I have not gotten any indication that I will personally will be doing it."
Jules Vasquez
"Knowing the facts of the case as you do, Is it your expectation as a civilian that he will one day be a free man base on the facts of the case as you know it?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"Well I can only guess. It is my humble personal opinion that the verdict was more emotional than anything else and I believe that he has a good chance on appeal but I don't know if the court of appeal or the applet court beyond that would agree with me. It's very difficult to predict what a court will or will not say."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you able to say anything about your client state of mind? Is he crestfallen at the verdict? Did he expect more having gotten a retrial at the Privy Council."
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"No, when I first was instructed to represent Mr. Pipersburg I explain to him carefully and in details all the possibilities and so one of the possibilities being that he may be found guilty so it is not something that we did not contemplate as a possibility before going into the trail so he just has to deal with it."
Peyrefitte also apologized to the court for the outburst which occurred last week when police tried to shackle his client. He called one of the police officers a derogatory term in the courtroom after court was adjourned.
