Federal prosecutors announced Monday they have decided not to appeal a ruling overturning a death penalty against a man convicted in the execution-style slaying of two undercover New York Police Department detectives.
Ronell Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death by two separate federal juries in the shooting deaths of Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin in an illegal gun sting gone bad on Staten Island in 2003.
The first death sentence was overturned due to prosecutorial error. A district judge reversed the second verdict last year after finding that Wilson was ineligible for the death penalty because he met the legal standard for having a mental disability.
"Our decision now does not change our view that it was proper to seek the death penalty against Wilson, a sentence that was deemed to be just by two different juries," acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde said in a statement. "Nor does it lessen the culpability of Wilson, whose conviction was upheld on appeal, for his cold-blooded execution of Detectives Nemorin and Andrews."
Wilson will serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.
