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Jury spares Malvo's life in Washington sniper case

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  • Jury spares Malvo's life in Washington sniper case

    Jury spares Malvo's life in Washington sniper case

    CHESAPEAKE, Virginia (CNN) -- A Virginia jury Tuesday decided Lee Boyd Malvo should be sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in the Washington-area sniper killings, rejecting prosecutors' call for his execution.

    The verdict followed about nine hours of deliberation over two days. Judge Jane Marum Roush set formal sentencing for March 10.

    Jurors also called for Malvo to be fined $100,000 on the each of the two capital counts against him.

    The Associated Press reported that Malvo, wearing a blue sweater that made him look like a schoolboy, sat expressionless, with his elbows on the defense table.

    The jury took 81/2 hours over two days to decide his fate.

    The deliberations began after prosecutors on Monday urged jurors to opt for a death sentence for Malvo, saying he has failed to show "an ounce of remorse" for the "outrageous" October 2002 killing spree.

    Earlier this week, defense attorneys pleaded for the eight-woman, four-man jury to have mercy on their client, who was 17 during last year's sniper attacks.

    Malvo was found guilty last week of terrorism, capital murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin on October 14, 2002, during a three-week series of sniper attacks in the Washington area that killed 10 people and wounded three. (Full story)

    The state law concerning terrorism was passed after September 11. Both counts could have brought the death penalty.

    Virginia law requires a jury to find at least one "aggravating factor" to impose a death sentence. Prosecutors argued there were two: that Malvo poses a future danger and that his crimes were "outrageously or wantonly vile."

    During closing arguments of the penalty phase, Malvo's lawyers argued that he was brainwashed by convicted accomplice John Allen Muhammad.

    "Lee was uniquely susceptible to becoming attached to a father figure and the charismatic personage of John Muhammad," defense attorney Craig Cooley said.

    Prosecutor James Horan, however, contrasted excerpts from Malvo's statement to police after his arrest with crime-scene photos of his victims, disputing defense contentions that the teenager had felt remorse for the killings.

    "Is the behavior of this defendant so outrageous that the penalty of death is called for? Is the behavior so outrageous?" Horan asked. "We submit, based on the evidence that is already before you, that the penalty of death is the appropriate verdict at this stage."

    Horan played Malvo's taped confession, which he mimicked the sound of sniper victim James "Sonny" Buchanan's lawn mover and admitting he killed Pascal Charlot, a 72-year-old Washington man shot while crossing a street. He noted that shortly before his murder, Buchanan had spent hours on a porch, rocking in a chair while talking to his mother.

    "That mother now sits in one of those rocking chairs waiting for a son who will never come home," he said. "That's vileness -- the uncaring attitude not only of those you killed but what you took away from others."

    Muhammad, 42, who was found guilty last month in the sniper killings and faces a February sentencing date after a jury decided he should be executed. (Full story)

    Defense attorneys say Malvo was separated from his father as a young child and attended 10 schools as he was uprooted repeatedly by his mother during their life in the Caribbean islands, leaving him vulnerable to Muhammad's influence.

    Cooley said friends all described Muhammad as "a pied piper for children."

    In rebuttal to prosecutors, Malvo's attorneys called on the jury to reject "the voices of vengeance and retribution.

    "We are about to entrust the life of this child to you," defense attorney Cooley said. "In a very real sense, you are the last in a very long line of caretakers. Exercise your compassion."

    Earlier Monday, Malvo's father, Leslie Malvo, described how his son wanted to be a pilot and loved to wear an aviator's jacket his father bought for him. But Judge Roush urged defense lawyers to limit his testimony, since he had already taken the stand once during the five-week trial.

    http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/23/sp...ial/index.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    :reallymad :flamemad

    Comment


    • #3
      :ar15
      "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

      Comment


      • #4
        PLEASE DO NOT REFER TO THESE MURDERERS AS SNIPERS.

        It is an affront.

        Comment


        • #5
          So he shook the death penalty in D.C. Isn't he also wanted for murder in Georgia?

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by M21Sniper
            PLEASE DO NOT REFER TO THESE MURDERERS AS SNIPERS.

            It is an affront.
            I don't know that I would even qualify him as a sharp shooter, weren't most of the targets less than 200 yards away?

            edit: and yes snipe I understand that wasn't the point of your post.
            Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

            Comment


            • #7
              Malvo 'Lucky' to Look So Young

              Malvo 'Lucky' to Look So Young



              CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Lee Boyd Malvo (search) looked younger than his 18 years as he sat in court during his murder trial and doodled on a legal pad — and lawyers on both sides agreed his boyishness contributed to the jury's decision to spare his life.

              The jury of eight women and four men sentenced Malvo to life in prison without parole Tuesday for his part in the three-week sniper spree that left 10 people dead in and around the nation's capital in October 2002.

              Defense lawyers portrayed Malvo as an impressionable boy who fell under the sinister influence of mastermind John Allen Muhammad (search).

              Jury foreman James Wolfcale did not discuss the jury's deliberation process in detail, saying only that the trial was "an extremely difficult journey for everyone. This case was both mentally challenging and emotionally exhausting."

              Prosecutor Robert F. Horan Jr. (search) said afterward that Malvo was "very lucky that he looks a lot younger than he is." He said the timing of the deliberations just days before Christmas also affected the jury.

              "We used to have a theory when I was a very young prosecutor that whatever you do, don't try one on Christmas week," Horan said.

              Defense attorney Craig Cooley (search) agreed that Malvo's youthful looks probably affected the sentence. He said Malvo was relieved, but "on the other hand he's 18, contemplating living the rest of his natural life in a penitentiary setting." He said the conviction will be appealed.

              Malvo, casually dressed in a sweater as he was throughout the trial, sat expressionless, his elbows on the defense table, as he heard the sentence.

              The jury took 8 1/2 hours over two days to decide his fate.

              Last month, Muhammad, 42, was found guilty of murder, and a jury in nearby Virginia Beach recommended the death penalty.

              Malvo and Muhammad still could be tried in other shootings in Virginia and elsewhere, and they could get the death penalty.

              Several relatives of the victims said they were disappointed Malvo escaped the death penalty.

              Marion Lewis, whose daughter, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was shot and killed by a sniper bullet while cleaning her minivan at a Maryland gas station, said the jurors should be ashamed.

              "I'm very disappointed in the American justice system," Lewis said. "Our society has now been sentenced to the responsibility of seeing to this man's health and welfare for the next 30 or 40 years, and that's unconscionable."

              Vijay Walekar, who lost his brother Premkumar Walekar in the sniper attacks, said he had wanted Malvo to be executed.

              "What if he runs away again?" Walekar said, referring to Malvo's thwarted escape attempt the night he was arrested.

              Katrina Hannum, daughter of sniper victim Linda Franklin, shook her head and cried when the sentence was read. She did not speak to reporters.

              The defendant's mother, reached by phone in Malvo's native Jamaica, thanked the jury. "I thank God that they spared his life," Una James said.

              Malvo was convicted last week of two counts of capital murder in the shooting of Franklin, an FBI analyst cut down by a single bullet to the head outside a Home Depot. One count alleged Franklin's slaying was part of a series of murders, the other alleged the killing was intended to terrorize the population. Either count could have brought the death penalty.

              At the trial, Malvo's lawyers presented an insanity defense, claiming the charismatic Muhammad had molded Malvo into a killer by brainwashing him with his notions of black nationalism, racism and revolutionary violence so that the teenager was unable to tell right from wrong. Malvo and Muhammad are black.

              Though the argument failed in the guilt-or-innocence part of the trial, it was central to the penalty phase.

              Prosecutors argued death was the only appropriate sentence for Malvo.

              Horan said the killings were part of a scheme to extort $10 million from the government and that Malvo was the triggerman in most slayings.

              "They were an unholy team, as vicious as brutal and as uncaring as you can be," Horan said in his closing statement in the sentencing phase of the trial.

              The jurors found that prosecutors proved both aggravating factors needed to impose a death sentence: that Malvo poses a future danger and that his crimes were "outrageously or wantonly vile." But such a finding does not require a death penalty, and the jury decided he did not deserve to die.

              Prosecutors in Maryland, Alabama and Louisiana have said they want a crack at Muhammad, and Malvo could face a similar fate.

              Attorney General John Ashcroft (search) had cited Virginia's ability to impose "the ultimate sanction" in sending Malvo and Muhammad to Virginia for prosecution.

              Virginia is one of only 21 states that allow the execution of those who were 16 or 17 when they killed. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Virginia is one of only six states that have executed someone whose crime was committed as a juvenile.

              http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106575,00.html

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