Jury spares Malvo's life in Washington sniper case
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 Posted: 4:19 PM EST (2119 GMT)

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia (CNN) -- A Virginia jury spared Lee Boyd Malvo from the death penalty Tuesday in the Washington sniper case after his lawyers argued that he was an impressionable teenager who had fallen under the malevolent influence of John Allen Muhammad.

Malvo will instead be locked away for the rest of his life.

The jury spared Malvo's life, in recommending a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Another Virginia jury had already recommended a death sentence for the first man convicted in last year's Washington-area sniper attacks, John Muhammad.

Jurors weighed whether to recommend sentencing Malvo to death or to life in prison without a chance of parole. Judge Jane Marum Roush set a March 10 hearing date to affirm the jury's recommendation.

Jurors began deliberating on a sentence recommendation Monday.

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)

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.

"The two of us would watch the planes coming down," he said in a report from The Associated Press. "Lee loved it very much."

Roush also refused to allow into evidence a letter Malvo's lawyers said was evidence of their client's remorse for the killings. His lawyers said the letter was written in May to Carmeta Albarus, who was hired to investigate Malvo's background.

"It was significant because in the 14 years I've done this and the 300 cases I've worked nationwide, I've never received a letter like that," Albarus said.

But Horan said the letter gives "no indication of remorse," and Roush ruled it inadmissible.

Albarus testified Monday that Malvo became emotional when she told him that she visited Maryland during October's sniper killings and could have been among the victims. She said she "did for Lee what I called the gas station jig" -- moving back and forth so as to avoid being shot.

"He looked up to me, and the realization hit him and the eyes again welled up with tears, and he just looked down and he was silent for a pretty long time," Albarus said.

Courtesy: CNN.com

Thoughts, opinions? I didn't expect anything less or anything greater, but I still feel that it is a biased principle to send an eighteen-year-old child to jail for the rest of his pitiful life.

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well i'd probs of give him the penalty

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A life in prison is probably more torture then any death penalty

yeh but, when peeps get life in prison, it costs shit loads of wonga to keep em their

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He got off a bit lucky...

It would be fairly hard to basically kill someone that young. =/ Deserving or not.

Word. That's still a pretty tough sentence on him.

Why didnt he plead insanity? Or did he?

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W o r d P e r f e c t

Because He pleaded Under influence. He might have felt that life in a padded cell is worse than life in prison

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^ No, cause ive seen them do it before. If you plead insanity, then they lock you away for some time in a mental institution, then they start doing tests on you to see if your ok or whatever, then after some time - if your cured or 'normal' again .. you're allowed back into the real world and they put the murder down to you having a mental problem before. They class that the murder wasnt your fault, because you were insane at the time. Why didnt he try for that? I would of.

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W o r d P e r f e c t

Honestly I would done it to but in HIS opinion, maybe something was off about. Like Even if he get's free from a mental institute, Who's gonna hire and ex-killer? He'd end up on the streets which is worse than prison. Another possibility would be that he had a conscious and want a death sentence. It's happened many tmes before.

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^ They wont know he was an ex killer will they?! When he was released, they'd give hima whole new identity and such so the public wouldnt find out who he was and murder him.

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W o r d P e r f e c t

I guess that may have some truth to it, but he'd never get hired into my company or ever work on a program requiring some kind of clearence. You could have a criminal past and still be hired and granted clearence, but the minute you talk to a shrink about anything outside the scope of; the passing of a loved one, your done!

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FUCKA BABYLON BANDIT!!!

he tried many things. he DID say he was insane to my knowledge, and his lawyers tried to say that he was acting under his fathers influence. i happen to live where some of the shootings took place, this is why i know this i guess. plus, my towns school was on his list of places to shoot. (yes, they did keep a list of places they were going to shoot people at).

^ Lmao, true. But i was just trying to find out why in the hell he didnt do that. He would of got away with it in a way if he'd played it off right, and he wouldnt do half the time he has to now. he'd probably be out of jail and settle with an expensive home and a decent job by age 30. What he did just seems stupid to me, i mean, he didnt even TRY to get that shit, he just accepted life in jail with no chance of parolle.

I dont get why he did that.

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W o r d P e r f e c t

ummm, are we past the fact that he sniped a bunch of people? how could he do that?