Change in D.C. Sniper Case

In 2002, 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo and 41-year-old John Allen Muhammad traveled around the Maryland/D.C. area terrorizing the local population. At the end of their month-long shooting spree, 10 people total had been killed, and another three were critically injured.

The case unfolded how most would have expected. Beginning in 2003, the two were both convicted of different sentences. Joh Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed in 2009. Malvo, on the other hand, was sentenced to two life sentences without parole in Virginia after he entered Alford pleas, meaning that he does not admit guilt but does recognize that there is enough evidence to be convicted. In addition to these two Alford pleas, he was sentenced to another six life sentences in Maryland after he pleaded guilty to six murder charges.

Since the trial occurred 14 years ago, there have been many developments in the Supreme Court, and two of these developments have led to a change in Malvo’s trial.

In 2012, in the Supreme Course Case Miller vs. Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled that “sentencing a child to life without parole is excessive for all but ‘the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption,’” and that they also must consider if the crime reflects “irreparable corruption” or if the crime was simply “the transient immaturity of youth.” They also ruled in 2012 that it is unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Even though the case had already been decided upon by the time of this Miller vs. Alabama, the second ruling in 2016 decided that these new legal factors were so monumental it should also be applied retroactively. When he received the life sentence from Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush, she did not consider the factors so legally, they must now resentence, even though the legal factors of “irreparable corruption” and “the transient immaturity of youth.” Since Malvo was 17 at the time of the crimes, and still considered a juvenile by the court’s standards, they were required reconsider his convictions, but not his rulings.

The resentences could be postponed if the Virginia Attorney General appeal Jackson’s rulings. At the moment though, they will be resentencing him, and it is still possible for Malvo to serve the life in prison sentences that were originally handed down to him, but he is also allowed to appeal the original sentences since he did not have the right to appeal at the time of the original case in 2004.

Although there is a chance that he can get away with a much less severe sentence, Virginia Attorney General’s office spokesman Michael Kelly released the following statement last night, “We are 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.”