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NO DEATH PENALTY
Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for the suspect accused of killing a Canarsie teenager last November. According to a statement by Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes issued on Friday, May 31st, a sentence of life in prison without parole will be sought in the case against Divine Sawyer, 22, who was indicted for murder in the first degree in the death of Jerlani Isaac, 16, of East 103rd Street, who was shot to death on November 21st, 2001, the night before Thanksgiving, when he was out buying aluminum cookware for his mother for the next day’s meal. Sawyer, who formerly lived on Farragut Road, was picked up after the shooting and charged with intentional murder after he and two others accosted Isaac and two of his friends at about 9:30 p.m. in front of McDonald’s on Rockaway Parkway, police said. Sergeant James O’Neill of the 69th Precinct Detective Squad said Sawyer and two friends, Marc Jones, 21, and his brother Tareq, 18, both of East 93rd Street, allegedly tried to take a metal crucifix from one of Isaac’s friends. When the victim handed over the necklace, the trio started to run south on Rockaway Parkway and Sawyer allegedly shot the youth, police said. O’Neill said Sawyer and Tareq Jones were rounded up shortly after the shooting and precinct police recovered the necklace from Sawyer’s pocket. Mark Jones was arrested later at the precinct stationhouse. The brothers were charged with murder in the second degree. The capital punishment law gives prosecutors 120 days from the arraignment of a defendant on an indictment charging murder in the first degree to determine whether to seek the death penalty or life without parole. Sawyer was arraigned on January 4th. The 120 day period lapsed June 3rd. "I have concluded, after review and deliberation, that a sentence of life without parole for the defendant is the appropriate punishment to seek in this case," the district attorney said.
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