Posted on 05/09/2008 3:57:20 PM PDT by SmithL
McLean, Va. (AP) -- Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad has changed his mind again and now wants to go forward with a federal appeal of his conviction and death sentence, according to his lawyers.
In a handwritten letter from death row made public this week, Muhammad told the Virginia attorney general that he wanted to suspend all appeals on his 2003 death sentence and that appeals filed on his behalf were not authorized.
But Muhammad's lawyer, James Connell, wrote a letter Thursday to a U.S. District judge saying Muhammad now wants to go forward with his appeal.
"Mr. Muhammad expressly authorized me to represent that (1) he does not wish to be executed; (2) he does not wish to abandon the (appeals) process; and (3) he does not wish to discharge his legal team," Connell wrote.
Katherine Baldwin, a senior assistant attorney general who is representing Virginia, said Friday in a letter that she accepts Connell's representation and that she sees no reason to take action based on Muhammad's earlier letter.
In that letter, Muhammad said he was writing to prosecutors for assistance "because I know you will make sure this letter will get to the right people — so that you can murder this innocent black man."
Defense lawyer Jonathan Sheldon, who is also representing Muhammad, declined to comment specifically on his client's thought process but said it is not unusual for death-row inmates to vacillate in their commitment to the appeals process.
"This is largely due to the relatively new and legally questionable phenomenon of solitary confinement for death row inmates and partly due to the reduced opportunity to have the fairness of their trial evaluated" as the appeals process has been curtailed, Sheldon said. "The decline in mental health and feelings of despair often result...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Uhh...the jihadi is a convicted murderer in the name of allah(may pigs be upon him).
Aw, let him fight the death sentence. Instead of a quick needle in the arm, let him dance the Tyburn Jig. That’ll give him an extra 10 minutes or so.
The VERY instant that lying, murderous "black muslim" POS submitted that note -- a sane world would have dragged his ass out of his cell and shot him squarely between the eyes...
Tell you what, terrorist, you go walk down the sidewalk to what you think is the courthouse where you’ll present your appeal and we’ll have someone suddenly blow your guts out all over the concrete with a rifle.
If you can “fight” that sentence, you’re free to go.
He should have been worm food a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog time ago.
The twisted fsck executed folks pumping gas in my county, shopping at a Home Depot not far from my high school, and a gentleman in the parking lot of the Ashland, Va. Ponderosa where my dad and I generally stop for lunch or dinner on the way to Williamsburg.
No, let him fry. This year, our tax dollars as Virginians will be well spent.
POS should be earthworm food by now.
Cheers!
“This is largely due to the relatively new and legally questionable phenomenon of solitary confinement for death row inmates ...
? Yeah, right. - Legally questionable to put convicted murderers in separate cells apart from the general inmate population.
Uh huh.
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