Younger
sniper suspect to plead insanity
By
Jane Black
U-Wire, DC Bureau
WASHINGTON
(U-Wire) -- A year after the sniper shootings
that terrorized the nation's capital, one
of the accused triggermen will plead he
was brainwashed to kill by the man he once
called "Dad".
Lawyers
for accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo announced
just five days before Muhammad's trial that
they will argue Malvo was "indoctrinated"
by co-defendant John Allen Muhammad, in
a string of 13 shootings in the Washington
region last October.
Malvo,
17 at the time of the shootings, faces two
capital murder charges. His trial, scheduled
to begin November 10, was moved to Chesapeake,
Va., to find jurors unaffected by the shooting
rampages that lasted three weeks.
In
what legal experts are calling an "11th
hour" decision by the defense team,
Malvo will not serve time in prison if defense
lawyers convince the jury of his alleged
insanity.
"There
were probably not many other options for
the defense team," said legal expert
Eric Sirulnik, a professor of criminal law
at The George Washington University. "Especially
because Virginia is not what you would call
a 'defendant-friendly' environment."
The
defense team must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that Malvo did not know the difference
between right and wrong at the time the
crimes were committed -- that he did not
understand the consequences of his actions.
In
transcripts and courtroom testimony that
Malvo gave last fall, Malvo admitted to
pulling the trigger in several of the fatal
shootings. According to police records,
Malvo also allegedly boasted to police and
jail guards that he fired some of the shots.
Although
DNA and other evidence link both Malvo and
Muhammad to all of the crime scenes, no
evidence exists that Muhammad ever fired
a weapon.
"If
Malvo has a separate jury to decide guilt
and insanity, he's up the creek," said
legal expert James E. Starrs, a Professor
of Law at The George Washington University."
A jury usually wont convict a defendant
of guilt and then say he is insane."
Malvo,
born and raised in Jamaica, met Muhammad,
42, in Antigua in 1999. They both illegally
entered the United States in 2001 and spent
the next year traveling around the country
by car and bus. The two briefly lived together
in a homeless shelter in Bellingham, Washington.
Muhammad
pled not guilty before a judge on Tuesday,
publicly denying for the first time that
he took part in the shootings
Ellen
S. Podgor, a former deputy prosecutor and
criminal defense lawyer, remembers hearing
doctor testimony of a defendant's insanity,
and the jury still rendering a guilty verdict.
"Many
juries are very skeptical of insanity because
they are afraid someone found to be insane
might be back out on the streets,"
said Podgor, a Professor of Law at Georgia
State College of Law.
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