Brazil sentences two former lawmakers to 76 years in Marielle Franco case

The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil sentenced former Rio de Janeiro legislators Chiquinho Brazão and Domingos Brazão to 76 years and three months in prison each. The court found they ordered the 2018 killing of city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver. The convictions were for double aggravated homicide, participation in an armed criminal organization, and attempted murder. Each man received the same term.

The Supreme Federal Court is Brazil's highest court for this class of case. A sentence measured in decades, here 76 years and three months, is a penal total that can reflect several crimes added together. Double aggravated homicide covers the two killings with aggravating factors as the court defined them. Attempted murder was an additional conviction, so the case included a killing that was tried but not completed against at least one person.

Marielle Franco was a city councilor in Rio de Janeiro. Her driver was killed with her in 2018. The driver was not named in the sentencing report. The Brazão brothers were identified as former legislators of Rio de Janeiro state. Ordering the killing is the role the court assigned them, as distinct from firing the shots themselves.

Participation in an armed criminal organization was the third offense named. That conviction places the murders inside an organized armed group rather than an isolated dispute. The report did not name other members of that organization. It also did not say where the two men would be imprisoned.

Aggravated homicide is a murder count carrying extra legal weight because of circumstances the law treats as more serious. The court applied that form, doubled because two people were killed. The identical terms for both defendants were part of the reported result. No dissenting vote was described.

Chiquinho Brazão and Domingos Brazão each received 76 years and three months. The Supreme Federal Court convicted them of ordering the 2018 deaths of Marielle Franco and her driver, and of the related organized-crime and attempted-murder counts. The driver was not named in the summary. The paired sentences were the judgment.