The Chester County, Pa. district attorney has decided not to seek the death penalty against a West Goshen woman and her lover in the June murder of the woman’s husband.

KYW’s David Madden reports that DA Joe Carroll offered a four page written explanation for his decision. The case against Morgan Mengel (right) and Stephen Shappell (left): they wanted Morgan’s husband Kevin out of the way so they could be together without a divorce (see related story).

So they planned to poison him, then Stephen beat him with a shovel at the Mengel’s landscaping business. While Carroll calls the allegations “calculated, cold-blooded and depraved”, they don’t rise to the level of any of the 18 aggravating circumstances needed to pursue the death penalty.

Besides, Kevin Mengel’s parents didn’t want it. So should there be a conviction the penalty would be life without parole.