A 55-year-old Folsom man, convicted late last week of raping two girls under the age of 13, will be sentenced to mandatory life in prison June 19 without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension, court records revealed.

Clarence Sanders III, unanimously convicted on two counts of aggravated rape by a 12-person jury, was eligible to face the death penalty under Louisiana law. Louisiana is one of a handful of states that still offers death as punishment for convicted child rape offenders.

“We did not seek the capital verdict because it just wasn’t appropriate in this case,” District Attorney Walter Reed spokesman Rick Wood said, adding capital cases in Covington’s 22nd Judicial Court are usually reserved for murders. The decision to settle on life imprisonment instead of death comes as the United States Supreme Court debates this month whether the death penalty for rape convicts is considered cruel and unusual punishment. The debate settles on a Harvey man scheduled for execution after raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

St. Tammany Parish prosecutors have never sought the death penalty for a sexual offender.

“As long as this law has been on the books, there has been a belief that if it ever went to the Supreme Court it would be struck down as unconstitutional,” Wood said.

Nevertheless, Sanders will spend the rest of his life behind bars. A Jury convicted him in less than 50 minutes late Friday after a four-day trial.

Sanders, convicted of repeatedly raping two girls from 2004 until his arrest in November 2006, is also accused of sexually abusing two of his rape victim’s friends, also under 13.

District Attorney Walter Reed’s Office is unsure whether it will prosecute those two indecent behavior with a juvenile charges because Sanders is already scheduled to receive the life imprisonment in June.

Sanders’ November 2006 arrest occurred after one of his rape victims told her parents, who told the father of another victim. That parent called authorities.

In late 2006, Sanders bonded out of jail in lieu of a $350,000 bond and was outfitted with a tracking device.

His bond criteria provided he did not contact any of his four victims, all of whom testified against him during his trial, Wood said.

Scott Gardner and Gerald Alonzo prosecuted Sanders.