The family and religious community of slain religious Sisters urged the court to show mercy and spare the life of Rodney Earl Sanders, the 48-year-old Kosciusko man who last week pleaded guilty to murdering the two nuns in their Durant home in August of 2016.
Rodney Earl Sanders, 48, of Kosciusko, will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty last Thursday to the August 2016 murders of Roman Catholic Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill in their Durant home.
The two women were found stabbed in their home on August 25, 2016, after they failed to show up for work at the Lexington Medical Clinic where they had been nurse practitioners serving the needy of Holmes County for more than a decade. At the time of their deaths, the two had spent 30 years in service to some of poorest areas in Mississippi and elsewhere.
Investigators say Sanders, who had been temporarily living in a shed across from the Sisters’ home, confessed to entering the dwelling uninvited through the back door and struggling with the two women.
According to District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver and Mississippi Bureau of Investigations agents, the state had 
gathered forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony linking Sanders to the murders. They also found DNA consistent with the accused under at least one of the victim’s fingernails.
Malone-Oliver said capital murder charges that could garner the death penalty were warranted since the women had been stabbed to death in commission of sexual battery.
Sanders stood before Holmes County Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis, who repeatedly asked him to speak up and confirm that he was voluntarily giving up his right to trial and appeal in the case. He then pleaded guilty to the two capital murder charges, as well as to burglary and stealing Held’s car.
By pleading guilty, District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver recommended against the court imposing the death penalty. Malone-Oliver said she did so because the Sisters’ families and friends insisted that the slain women did not believe in capital punishment.
Following the formal plea process, Sanders sat at the defense table with his attorney as Lewis heard a series of emotional victim impact statements from family, friends and colleagues of the slain Sisters.
Though his head was bowed most of the time, Sanders occasionally raised his head to blink back tears or make brief eye contact with speakers who addressed him by name.
Sister Susan Gatz, president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, was the first to ask Lewis to show Sanders mercy and not impose the death penalty.
“Sister Paula Merrill was a treasured member of our congregation. This brought us to our knees and we continue to grapple with the fact that they died in such a cruel and horrific way. They saw community members in the seventh-poorest county in the country and they saw the face of God in every face,” she told the court.
Gatz addressed Sanders briefly, asking “What have you experienced in your life that you could do this?”
She then told the court that the congregation would not seek vengeance.
“In spite of our own anger and hurt, we looked to the Sisters in how to act in this moment and to guide us…. She would offer Christ’s forgiveness,” she said.
Sister Mary Walz of the Daughters of Charity of Nazareth, one of three Sisters who now live in Held and Merrill’s former home who works at the same Lexington clinic, said she has come to know Held and Merrill through the loving stories of their patients.
“I believe their last breath was a prayer for forgiveness for Rodney,” she told the court.
“God still has plans for you,” Walz said as she looked over at Sanders. “Our prayer is that you will use the rest of your life to do good.”
Rosemarie Merrill, Sister Paula’s biological sister, expressed anger toward Sanders, but also noted that there must have been some suffering in his life to have brought him to carry out such a horrific act.
“Mr. Sanders, I am sorry for whatever happened in your life to make you do this. I hate what you did, but I do not hate you,” she said, looking that Sanders across the courtroom. “I am relieved that you will spend the rest of your life in jail, but I forgive you your vile action.”
Sister Carol Regali and Sister Debra Fumagalli, members of the Provincial Leadership Team of the School Sisters of St. Francis, read a statement to the court, extolling the virtues of the Sisters and explaining their stance against the death penalty.
“Serving the poor and those on society’s margins each day, their daily acts of compassion at the clinic, in their parish, and everywhere they went were testimony to their lives of joyful, loving service,” Regali read aloud.
“Even though our feelings of pain and anger and grief are justified and healthy, we also know that God — the loving God that Paula and Margaret served so faithfully throughout their lives — calls us to act with mercy. And we are here today to witness the measure of justice that you will receive this day, Mr. Sanders, but also to call you to seek God’s forgiveness for your actions,” she said.
Other speakers, like Connie Blake, an associate of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, noted the suffering of Holmes County.
“Paula found a home in Mississippi, where she could serve the poorest of the poor. She made everyone fell they were her only patient that day,” she said, recalling that everyone knew sister Paula from her bicycle and then scooter rides through the communities she served on her way to work in the days before she had a car.
“She would be angry at what you did to the people of Holmes County,” she told Sanders, “but I know she would forgive you for what you did. My prayer is that you find redemption.”
See related story: Sister Margaret's family tries to forgive
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