Sniper killer Muhammad sentenced death

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sniper killer Muhammad sentenced death
10
Tue, 03-09-2004 - 3:10pm

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


Tuesday, March 9, 2004 · Last updated 10:03 a.m. PT


Sniper killer Muhammad sentenced to death


By MATTHEW BARAKAT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


MANASSAS, Va. -- A judge rejected John Allen Muhammad's insistence of innocence and sentenced him to death Tuesday, saying his actions in the Washington-area sniper shootings that left 10 people dead were "so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension."


Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. also turned aside a plea from Muhammad's lawyers to spare their client's life. He ordered that Muhammad be executed on Oct. 14, but that date likely will be postponed to allow appeals.


Muhammad, 43, was convicted of capital murder on Nov. 17 and a jury recommended he be sentenced to death for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas. His teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is to be sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.


Muhammad denied any involvement in the killings Tuesday, telling the judge, "Don't make a fool of the Constitution of the United States of America."


"Just like I said at the beginning, I had nothing to do with this, and I'll say again, I had nothing to do with this," Muhammad said.


But Millette said the jury's sentence was supported by law and that "these offenses are so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension."


During Muhammad's trial, prosecutor's described him as "captain of a killing team" and portrayed him as a Malvo's father figure, a stern and controlling man who trained the teenager to do his bidding.


Larry Meyers, older brother of the victim, testified Tuesday that "Dean meant so much to each and every one of us. I'd prefer to remember the good times."


Sonia Wills, mother of sniper victim Conrad Johnson, said afterward, "Justice has been served today. I can go to my son's grave and wish him a happy birthday this Sunday." She said he would have been 37.


Defense lawyer Peter Greenspun told the judge Muhammad is not inherently evil.


"I've represented a lot of bad guys," Greenspun said. "I've represented guys that you look them in the eye and see evil. I've spent a lot of time with John Allen Muhammad and that's not him."


Prosecutor Paul Ebert disagreed. "I see nothing but pure evil," he said after the hearing.


Defense lawyers had filed a motion Monday arguing that life in prison was the more appropriate sentence to eliminate the disparity between Muhammad's punishment and that of Malvo, 18.


Malvo, who was tried separately in Chesapeake, was given life in prison by the jury in the Oct. 14, 2002, slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, 47, outside a Falls Church, Va., Home Depot store.


Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush has no leeway Wednesday to alter Malvo's sentence. In Virginia, judges can accept a jury's sentence recommendation or reduce it, but cannot increase it.


Earlier Tuesday, Millette had rejected a defense request for a new trial for Muhammad. Defense attorneys based their motion on letters that Malvo wrote to another inmate in the Fairfax County jail.


Defense lawyers said they were unaware of the letters before trial and said they show Malvo acted and thought independently and was not under the sway of Muhammad.


Prosecutors said the letters added nothing to the case, and Millette agreed.


Muhammad's lawyers have raised several issues that will likely be primary points of appeal. First, they argue that under Virginia law only the triggerman in a shooting death can be eligible for the death penalty. The six-week trial never conclusively determined who was the triggerman in the killings, and much of the evidence suggests Malvo was the shooter.


But Millette sided with prosecutors who argued that the triggerman issue is irrelevant, and that Virginia law allows a death penalty in cases in which a defendant can be shown to be "the instigator and moving spirit" of a killing.


The defense team also argues that a second capital conviction based on a new antiterrorism law is both unconstitutional and improperly applied to Muhammad. The Virginia legislature passed the law after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, envisioning al-Qaida-style terrorism.


The law defines terrorism as a crime committed with "the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence the policy, conduct or activities of the government ... through intimidation or coercion."


Prosecutors said the circumstances of the October 2002 sniper spree fit that definition of terrorism like a glove. Muhammad and Malvo demanded a $10 million payment from the government to stop the shootings and left notes at shooting scenes promising "more body bags" if their demands weren't met.


The capital-area killings began on Oct. 2, 2002, when the pair shot a 55-year-old man to death outside a Wheaton, Md., supermarket. The following day, five people were killed in Maryland and Washington - four within a span of about two hours. On Oct. 4, the two expanded their shooting spree to Virginia, seriously wounding a woman.


From then until the two were captured Oct. 24, millions of residents lived in fear. Schools as far south as Richmond closed down, while others canceled all outdoor activities.


Muhammad and Malvox were captured at a highway rest stop near Myersville, Md., in a car that had been altered to allow someone to fire a high-powered rifle from inside the trunk.


They were subsequently linked to three killings in September 2002, in Atlanta; Montgomery, Ala.; and Baton Rouge, La. Alabama officials have said they hope to try Malvo and Muhammad for the killing there.


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-05-2003
Tue, 03-09-2004 - 4:04pm

I am against the death penalty, but as long as the death penalty is in place there are few more "deserving" candidates for it.


I would rather he spend the rest of his life in jail, but he deserves to be punished by the full extent of the law.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 03-09-2004 - 5:19pm
I'm not a supporter of the death penalty either,

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-29-2004
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 3:33pm
I don't beleive that the death penalty is a punishment or a deterrent, It's a way to guarantee that the guilty person will NEVER have a chance to kill again. I really don't want to pay for this guy to exist with "3 hots and a cot".

"...It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground..."

*To all* How can you say you oppose the death penalty but have "exceptions" to that belief?

Avatar for goofyfoot
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 3:42pm
Solitary confinement? How about chipping big rocks into little rocks out in the desert of New Mexico or Arizona in the sweltering heat with only bread and water to eat for the rest of his life. He'd wish he were dead.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 5:20pm

I don't beleive that the death penalty is a punishment or a deterrent, It's a way to guarantee that the guilty person will NEVER have a chance to kill again. I really don't want to pay for this guy to exist with "3 hots and a cot".


Yes, tax dollars go to pay for his upkeep.


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-06-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 5:29pm
>>How about chipping big rocks into little rocks out in the desert of New Mexico or Arizona in the sweltering heat with only bread and water to eat for the rest of his life. <<

Hmmm, now there's an option. Or making license plates. Might as well get some use out of him.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 5:38pm

>>Hmmm, now there's an option. Or making license plates. Might as well get some use out of him.<<


LOL!


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 5:45pm

If that were truly an option....


However, I tend to agree with jadethief.


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-05-2003
Wed, 03-10-2004 - 5:54pm

I don't beleive that the death penalty is a punishment or a deterrent, It's a way to guarantee that the guilty person will NEVER have a chance to kill again. I really don't want to pay for this guy to exist with "3 hots and a cot".


It costs more to fry a guy then it does to simply keep him in jail for the rest of his life, the costs of the appeals and all that is much more expensive on average then simply keeping a guy in jail for the rest of his life.


*To all* How can you say you oppose the death penalty but have "exceptions" to that belief?


I never believe in the death penalty and I don't have any "exceptions" to that belief.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 03-11-2004 - 4:04pm

Younger sniper sent to prison for life.


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8158724.htm


Lee Boyd Malvo, the young man who teamed up with John Allen Muhammad to terrorize the Washington area in 2002 in a sniper spree that left 10 people dead, was formally sentenced Wednesday in Chesapeake to life in prison without parole.


Malvo, 19, was sentenced a day after Muhammad was given the death penalty by a separate judge.


Malvo did not speak during the 10-minute hearing, as his attorneys don't want his words used against him in future trials. Prosecutor Paul Ebert, who led the case against Muhammad, said he would try Malvo for other killings if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that juveniles may be executed. A decision is expected next year. Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in the murder of Linda Franklin, 47.

cl-Libraone~

 


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