Virginia plans to keep sniper suspects

Associated Press ^ | January 23, 2004 | Matthew Barakat

[witnesstothefall]

McLEAN, Va. -- Gov. Mark R. Warner plans to keep convicted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the state so prosecutors can put them on trial again and seek the death penalty, despite several states' requests for the men's extradition.

Malvo and Muhammad were convicted last year for their roles in the October 2002 sniper spree that terrorized the Washington region and left 10 people dead. A Virginia Beach jury recommended a death sentence for Muhammad; Malvo, 18, was given a life term by a jury in Chesapeake.

Several other states, including Alabama, Louisiana and Maryland, have sought extradition of the pair for murders they allegedly committed. Maryland law does not allow Malvo to be punished by death because he was only 17 years old at the time of the sniper killings.

But the pair can be extradited only at the direction of the governor. Warner's office said Friday it has no plans to prevent Virginia prosecutors from trying the cases.

"I don't expect the governor will take any action that would prevent them from being prosecuted next in Virginia," Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

The most likely scenario would be to flip-flop the cases, with the Prince William prosecutors who tried Muhammad getting the Malvo case and the Fairfax prosecutors who tried Malvo getting the Muhammad case.

The conviction against Malvo relates only to the Oct. 14, 2002, killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin in Fairfax County, so Prince William County prosecutors are free to try Malvo for the Oct. 9, 2002 murder of Dean Harold Meyers in Manassas without violating Malvo's constitutional protections against being tried twice for the same crime.

Spotsylvania County also has obtained capital murder indictments against the pair for the Oct. 11, 2002 death of Kenneth Bridges.

The judge has the option of reducing Muhammad's death sentence to life in prison when he is sentenced March 10. Another trial against Muhammad could serve as a guarantee if a death sentence is overturned on appeal.

Muhammad's lawyers are preparing post-trial motions seeking to have the convictions overturned. They are challenging the constitutionality of a new anti-terrorism law that was used against Muhammad and a pretrial ruling that Muhammad could face the death penalty under Virginia law despite a lack of proof that he was the triggerman.

[witnesstothefall]

I live in Virginia, and was ashamed when the jury spared Malvo's life.

Too many Americans failed to learn the lesson of 9/11. Kill terrorists dead, and burn their damn house down.

[witnesstothefall]

It just occurred to me that AP's headline is factually incorrect. Both Malvo and Mohammed have been convicted, so they are no longer mere "suspects".

They are convicted terrorists.

[ArrogantBustard]

They are indeed convicted terrorists, the both of them. And I'm glad we're going to keep pounding on them here.

[witnesstothefall]

Also in today's news:

Lawyers: Muhammad, Malvo made sniper nest

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo set up a sniper nest in a Tacoma field more than a month before they began their killing spree around the nation's capital, authorities say.

They apparently were getting ready to shoot someone but were interrupted by a truck that cut through the field, and they abandoned their weapon, a loaded rifle with a telescopic sight and bipod, authorities said in Friday's Seattle Times.

"I think it's fair to say that we believe they were set up to shoot someone. We can't say who or why," said James Willett, a prosecutor in Prince William County, Va.

"Based on their subsequent actions, the random shootings of 10 people, it is a reasonable assumption that they were preparing and training there for what eventually happened here."

Authorities said the weapon left in the field was owned by Earl Lee Dancy Jr., who testified at Muhammad's trial in Virginia last November that he bought it for Muhammad after Muhammad said he need a rifle.

Muhammad, 43, could not legally possess a gun because he was the subject of a domestic-violence protective order.

Virginia authorities said the abandoned rifle may explain why Muhammad shoplifted the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the October 2002 sniper spree in and around Washington, D.C.

A jury in Virginia decided Muhammad should get the death penalty. Malvo received a life sentence.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Sniper%20Shootings%20Tacoma

[Alberta's Child]

Malvo never should have seen the inside of a courtroom -- he should have been tried before a military tribunal and executed without even notifying anyone what was going on until it was all over.

[MirrorField]

Mode: Sarcastic Yeah, a secret trial and disappearance to the Night and Fog. Exactly in accord with cherished American Traditions, NOT.

[Alberta's Child]

A foreign national who enters this country illegally and murders more than a dozen American citizens on a month-long killing spree is not a criminal in any sense of the word: he's a foreign combatant and should have been treated as such. There's no reason to treat him like a criminal and put his fate in the hands of a jury.

[CJ Wolf]

Muhhamed doesn't need another trial, it's a waste of my money. Kill him and retry Malvo, I'd pay for that trial, just so we could kill him too, stupid jurors...I too was ashamed by that verdict.