Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Lee Boyd Malvo (‘DC Sniper’) Gets 2 -Life Sentences Tossed Out by Federal Judge

lee boyd malvo
*Remember Lee Boyd Malvo, who along with another man, killed 10 people and wounded three over a three-week span in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia? Well, on Friday, a federal judge threw out his two life sentences.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk said Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in 2002 for a series of shootings we outlined above inn the now infamous DC Sniper case. His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in 2009.

Here is what the AP via MSN News is reporting:

Malvo also was sentenced to life in prison in Maryland for the murders that occurred there. But his lawyers have made an appeal on similar grounds in that state. A hearing is scheduled in June.

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh, who helped prosecute Malvo in 2003, said the Virginia attorney general can appeal Jackson’s ruling. If not, Morrogh said he would pursue another life sentence, saying he believes Malvo meets the criteria for a harsh sentence.

Michael Kelly, spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, said Friday evening that the office is “reviewing the decision and will do everything possible, including a possible appeal, to make sure this convicted mass murderer serves the life sentences that were originally imposed.”

He also noted that the convictions themselves stand and emphasized that, even if Malvo gets a new sentencing hearing, he could still be resentenced to a life term.

The story goes on to say that in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional. Then, last year, the Supreme Court applied that case retroactively to sentences issued before 2012.

Jackson, in his ruling, wrote that Malvo was entitled to a new sentencing hearing because the Supreme Court’s ruling grants new rights to juveniles that Malvo didn’t know he had when he agreed to the plea bargain.

You can read the rest of this AP report at MSN News.

 

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