Steve Burns
WMAL.com
RICHMOND – (WMAL) The legal team for Lee Boyd Malvo, one half of the D.C. Sniper team, is expected in court in Richmond today, making the case that Malvo should be given a new sentencing hearing.
Malvo has been serving six consecutive life sentences for his part in the D.C. Sniper shootings that terrorized the region in October 2002. 10 people were killed and three others were injured in fifteen separate attacks. But a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 opened the door for Malvo to potentially get new sentences. In Miller v. Alabama, the court ruled mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, and applied the ruling retroactively. Malvo was 17 when he was sentenced. He is now 32.
Malvo’s life sentences in Maryland have been upheld, as a judge found they were not presented as mandatory, but as one of multiple sentencing options. It’s a different story in Virginia, where a lower court judge found reason to believe Malvo could get re-sentenced. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring appealed that ruling. His case will be heard today in the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals.
“All of that means that he gets the added process. It doesn’t mean he gets an added outcome,” George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley told WMAL. “There are many juveniles that could well benefit from this ruling. Malvo just doesn’t happen to be one of them.”
Turley likened Malvo’s situation to defusing nine of ten bombs in front of him.
“It’s an impressive effort, but the result remains the same,” he said.
Even if Malvo is granted a new sentencing hearing, it remains highly likely he will receive another life sentence, except this time, it will not be because it was mandatory.
“He pleaded guilty to a series of horrendous crimes. It’s very unlikely, even considering the elements laid out by the Supreme Court, that he’s going to run the table and take out all of these life sentences,” Turley said.
While Malvo will remain in prison no matter what thanks to the upheld life sentences in Maryland, it is still a matter of principle for prosecutors in Virginia.
“The Virginia prosecutors feel that their victims deserve to have the original sentences kept in place,” Turley said. “Part of their healing is to know that he’s serving time for the death of their loved one, as well as others. That’s not an artificial distinction.”
Malvo’s partner in the shootings, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in 2009.
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