State justices deny Muhammad appeals
RICHMOND--The Virginia Supreme Court affirmed yesterday the capital murder convictions and death penalty for sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.
"If society's ultimate penalty should be reserved for the most heinous offenses, accompanied by proof of vileness or future dangerousness, then surely this case qualifies," Justice Donald Lemons wrote.
Muhammad was convicted of two counts of capital murder for the shooting of Dean Harold Meyers in Prince William County, one of 10 sniper killings that terrorized the Washington region during a three-week period in October 2002. Two of the sniper shootings occurred in Spotsylvania County.
Yesterday, at a news conference inside the Manassas Courthouse, Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said he was relieved by the Supreme Court's ruling and thanked the lawyers in the Attorney General's Office who handled the appeal.
"This, I think, is a major hurdle," said Ebert, who prosecuted Muhammad.
Ebert said he believes this was the first time a state anti-terrorism law had been tested and he felt this case fit the statute "almost perfectly."
Lawyers for Muhammad argued on appeal that Muhammad could not be sentenced to die under state law because he was not the triggerman in the shooting spree. They also claimed that a new anti-terrorism law that was the basis for one of the capital murder counts is unconstitutionally vague.
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction based on the anti-terrorism law but split 4-3 in affirming the conviction under the triggerman rule.
Ebert said the majority of justices interpreted the facts as he and his prosecution team had.
"We felt all along they were a killing team and equally responsible," Ebert said.
Peter D. Greenspun, a lawyer for Muhammad, said he and co-counsel Jonathan Shapiro were "extremely disappointed" and were considering their options.
"There is a significant dissent, so we are going to review the entirety of the decision and continue to do everything we can to protect John Muhammad's interests and save his life," he said.
Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, reached a plea agreement in Spotsylvania Circuit Court last fall that resulted in life sentences for the Oct. 4, 2002, wounding of county resident Caroline Seawell and the slaying of Philadelphia businessman Kenneth Bridges a week later. As part of the deal, Malvo agreed to drop his appeal in the Fairfax slaying for which he was convicted.
Malvo received a life sentence for the Oct. 14, 2002, slaying of 47-year-old Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store in Fairfax County. A jury recommended he receive life in prison rather than the death penalty.
Last month, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute juveniles, Ebert announced he would not prosecute Malvo for his role in Meyers' slaying because the teen had already received the maximum punishment possible. Malvo was 17 at the time of the shooting spree.
Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely said last fall he would not prosecute Muhammad because of the cost--he estimated a trial would run up to $2 million--and because the killer is already on death row.
Yesterday, Ebert said he spoke to the families of Franklin and Meyers to tell them of the state high court's ruling. He said Franklin's daughter was "very pleased" and that Meyers' family asked when the execution might occur.
Ebert estimated Muhammad's death sentence could be carried out in four to five years if he pursues all avenues of appeal.
The next step is to the U.S. Supreme Court and then a state habeas corpus petition.
Though Gov. Mark Warner will determine if or when Muhammad is transferred elsewhere for trial, Ebert said he knows prosecutors in Maryland, Alabama and Louisiana are interested in their turn.
"If it's going to be someplace else, it ought to be a place with a history of getting the death penalty and doing it on an expedited basis," Ebert said.
For that reason, the prosecutor said, he does not favor moving Muhammad to Maryland.
"They could hold him a long time and be a deterrent to the judicial process of the justice system of Virginia," Ebert said.
The Virginia high court heard arguments in the case Nov. 2 and took an unusually long time to issue a decision, allowing two terms of the court to pass without ruling.
"I had my fingers crossed for a long time and I'm happy to uncross them now," Ebert said.
The court's majority found that even if Malvo pulled the trigger in Meyers' shooting, Muhammad was eligible for the death penalty as an "immediate perpetrator" of slaying.
"Muhammad, with his sniper team partner, Malvo, randomly selected innocent victims," Lemons wrote. "With calculation, extensive planning, premeditation and ruthless disregard for life, Muhammad carried out his cruel scheme of terror."
The dissenting justices said Muhammad's actions--positioning the car and telling Malvo when to fire--"were of the same character as those of a lookout or wheelman in a robbery."
The court found no constitutional flaw in the anti-terrorism law, rejecting Muhammad's claim that "intimidation" and other terms should have been defined in the statute. Muhammad's lawyers also had argued that the law was improperly used against Malvo because it was intended to address terrorism like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Nothing in the words of these statutes evinces an intent to limit its application to criminal actors with political motives," the court said.
Muhammad's lawyers also claimed on appeal that prosecutors improperly offered conflicting theories in the trials of Muhammad and Malvo. Attorneys for Malvo put on an insanity defense, claiming Muhammad brainwashed him.
Muhammad's prosecutors portrayed him as a manipulator who molded the teenage cohort into a killer, defense attorneys said, while Malvo's prosecutors described the youth as a willful, independent thinker who was free of the older man's influence.
"A successful rebuttal of Malvo's affirmative defense of insanity is not inconsistent with a theory of prosecution that includes Muhammad engaged in training and directing Malvo in their sniper team activity," Lemons wrote.
Staff writer Pamela Gould and The Associated Press contributed to this report.