New Sentencing Hearing Scheduled For D.C. Sniper Doing Life in Prison

   A new sentencing hearing is coming soon for Lee Boyd Malvo, the Washington, D.C. sniper who was convicted along with an accomplice of killing 10 people in the Washington area in 2002.

   Malvo was 17 years old when he was sentenced to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

   In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional. Last year, the Court decided the rule could apply retroactively.

   There’s no doubt the convictions against Malvo will stand. The only remaining question is whether his life sentences will be overturned.

   He received four life sentences in Virginia. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson overturned all of them.

   He still could be sentenced to life in prison again but only if courts in Fairfax and Spotsylvania arrive at the same decision after following the standards set by the Supreme Court in 2012.

   Malvo, now 32, was convicted of 10 murders along with John Allen Muhammad. Muhammad would drive around in his car while Malvo shot people with a rifle.

   They drilled holes in the trunk of the car that allowed Malvo to shoot through it while aiming at his victims.

   Muhammad received the death penalty in 2009. Malvo’s attorneys argued that their client was under the influence of Muhammad, an older man who befriended and brainwashed him.

   In a hearing last month, Malvo’s attorneys Craig Cooley and Michael Arif argued that because the jury was given the option of either the death penalty or life in prison, the sentence was a mandatory life term that violated the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling.

   The Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that “sentencing a child to life without parole is excessive for all but ‘the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption.’”

   The new hearing for Malvo must determine whether his crimes reflect “irreparable corruption” or simply “the transient immaturity of youth,” Jackson wrote in his decision last month.

   For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: tramstack@aol.com or phone: 202-479-7240.