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Prosecutors seek death penalty in sniper case
November 7, 2002 Posted: 10:52 PM EST (0352 GMT)
Prosecutors in Virginia say they will seek the death penalty for two suspected snipers accused of killing 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area.
41-year-old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo were transferred to two different counties in Virginia Thursday, which is the state in which their trials will take place. Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "We believe that the first prosecutions should occur in those jurisdictions that provide the best law, the best facts and the best range of available penalties." His comments explained why Virginia would be the first state to try the suspects. Muhammad and Malvo are charged with shootings in other states as well.
Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of death penalty executions it has carried out. Virginia allows the death penalty for people 16 years of age and older.
John Lee Malvo, 17, will be tried as an adult in Fairfax County - the same area where FBI Analyst Linda Franklin was gunned down outside a Home Depot. Robert Horan, prosecutor for 36 years, will handle the case. Horan was the prosecutor in the trial of Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani who was sentenced to death for killing 3 people outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in 1993.
John Allen Muhammad, 41, will be tried in Prince William County, where one of the sniper victims was shot to death on October 9. Prince William County is the site of more death penalty cases than any other county in Virginia. Paul Ebert, who will prosecute the case, said, "The death penalty's reserved for the worst of the worst. And I think from the evidence that all of you are aware of over the last month or so these folks qualify."
Meanwhile, the case continues to widen against the two suspected snipers. Police in Georgia said on Thursday that ballistic tests linked the alleged D.C.-area snipers to the September 21 shooting death of a man in Atlanta.
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