Two men who stormed a church, doused parishioners with petrol and set them ablaze could be sentenced to death for the murders of an Irish nun and priest who died in the attack.
Kim John and Francis Phillip, who said God ordered them to carry out the attack on New Year's Eve 2000 to avenge corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, were due to be sentenced tonight.
Prosecutors in St Lucia were seeking the death penalty. The last hanging took place on the Caribbean island in 1995.
The two men were convicted last week of murdering 73-year-old Sister Theresa Egan, and St Lucian priest, 62-year-old Father Charles Gaillard. They beat the nun to death and set fire to the priest, who later died in a hospital.
Some have called their crime the worst in the history of the former British colony of 160,000 people.
When they stormed the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception during the New Year's Eve Mass, the two men carried flaming torches and a container of petrol that they used to douse worshippers.
A dozen worshippers were burned, some so seriously they were taken overseas for treatment.
John (22) and Phillip (35) said they were Rastafarian "prophets" seeking revenge for the wrongs of the church.
But other Rastafarians denounced the violence in the capital of Castries, saying it violated the Afro-Caribbean religion's belief in peaceful coexistence.
During their two-week trial, the defendants criticised Pope John Paul and the Queen, although their statements were often incoherent.
"We will not give up the fight until equal rights and justice are given to the poor," John testified.
"I burn a fire, a spiritual fire on the Pope of the Vatican and Queen Elizabeth for all the crimes against humanity of black African people."
Phillip laughed as witnesses testified against both men, and snickered when he described how he said John set fire to Father Gaillard and attacked Sister Egan.
Phillip said the victims begged: "`Don't do that.'"
When some worshippers tried to take the torch from him, he said, he doused them with petrol and set them afire.
The two could appeal any death sentence to Britain's Privy Council, the final court of appeal for many former British colonies.
AP