NEW YORK (CMC):

Two Guyanese immigrants convicted in July of engineering the murder of two people in an insurance scheme have escaped the death penalty.

Jurors in the case of insurance agent Richard James and his associate Ronald Mallay could not agree unanimously on whether the pair should be executed for the two murders that were committed in Queens and in Guyana.

Under federal law, such a split automatically results in a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Several jurors stated in a courtroom conference with defence lawyers and prosecutors that the panel was seriously divided on the death penalty, more so in the case of James than of Mallay.