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Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo withdraws Supreme Court case after Va. passes parole for juveniles
Source: Washington Post
Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo withdraws Supreme Court case after Va. passes parole for juveniles
Plea for resentencing ends; convicted murderer could seek release from Va. in two years but still faces six life terms in Md.
By Tom Jackman
2/24/2020, 6:24:07 p.m.
Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo agreed to drop his request for a resentencing that was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed legislation on Monday that creates the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders serving sentences of 20 years to life.
Malvo received four life sentences without parole for three Virginia slayings committed with John Allen Muhammad during the regional sniper rampage of October 2002, when Malvo was 17. He received six additional life sentences, also without possibility of parole, for six killings in Maryland during the same three-week period in 2002. The bill signed by Northam would only affect Malvo’s Virginia sentences.
The end of Malvo’s Supreme Court case may clear the way for more resentencings of juveniles nationwide who received life sentences, since the challenge to that process by the Virginia attorney general is now gone. In an agreement signed Monday, Malvo agreed not to seek a resentencing but will be eligible for parole as early as 2022. If Virginia paroled him for his four life terms, he would then have to begin serving his six life sentences in Maryland.
Malvo and Muhammad shot 13 people, 10 fatally, in the Washington area in October 2002. They are also suspected of killings in Washington state, Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. Muhammad was convicted in 2003 of killing Dean Harold Meyers in Manassas, sentenced to death and executed in 2009. Malvo was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the shooting of Linda Franklin in Falls Church, and pleaded guilty to two more murders in Spotsylvania County. Both were also convicted of six murders in Maryland.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that defendants 17 and younger should not be sentenced to life terms without parole unless the judge has considered whether their crime “reflects unfortunate yet transient immaturity,” or that the defendant is “the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption.” Those exact criteria did not exist when Malvo was sentenced by a jury in December 2003, or by a Fairfax County judge in March 2004. In 2016, the high court ruled that the criteria must be applied retroactively.
-snip-
Plea for resentencing ends; convicted murderer could seek release from Va. in two years but still faces six life terms in Md.
By Tom Jackman
2/24/2020, 6:24:07 p.m.
Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo agreed to drop his request for a resentencing that was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed legislation on Monday that creates the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders serving sentences of 20 years to life.
Malvo received four life sentences without parole for three Virginia slayings committed with John Allen Muhammad during the regional sniper rampage of October 2002, when Malvo was 17. He received six additional life sentences, also without possibility of parole, for six killings in Maryland during the same three-week period in 2002. The bill signed by Northam would only affect Malvo’s Virginia sentences.
The end of Malvo’s Supreme Court case may clear the way for more resentencings of juveniles nationwide who received life sentences, since the challenge to that process by the Virginia attorney general is now gone. In an agreement signed Monday, Malvo agreed not to seek a resentencing but will be eligible for parole as early as 2022. If Virginia paroled him for his four life terms, he would then have to begin serving his six life sentences in Maryland.
Malvo and Muhammad shot 13 people, 10 fatally, in the Washington area in October 2002. They are also suspected of killings in Washington state, Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. Muhammad was convicted in 2003 of killing Dean Harold Meyers in Manassas, sentenced to death and executed in 2009. Malvo was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the shooting of Linda Franklin in Falls Church, and pleaded guilty to two more murders in Spotsylvania County. Both were also convicted of six murders in Maryland.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that defendants 17 and younger should not be sentenced to life terms without parole unless the judge has considered whether their crime “reflects unfortunate yet transient immaturity,” or that the defendant is “the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption.” Those exact criteria did not exist when Malvo was sentenced by a jury in December 2003, or by a Fairfax County judge in March 2004. In 2016, the high court ruled that the criteria must be applied retroactively.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/02/24/sniper-lee-malvo-withdraws-supreme-court-case-after-va-passes-parole-juveniles/
