Sniper Sentenced to Death

 

I heard about this on the way home from work. I can't believe he said he had nothing to do with all those killings!! I'm glad the verdict came back the way it did!!

I also heard that they will be sentencing the teenager that helped him tomorrow. I'm not sure how I wish that one would turn out! He did kill all those people but was he coerced?? He's just a boy and yet at that age he knew the different between right and wrong and should be held accountable for his actions.

How do you feel about it??

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) - Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death Tuesday, despite his claim that he ``had nothing to do'' with the October 2002 killing spree that left 10 people dead in the nation's capital region.

Muhammad denied any involvement in the sniper rampage moments before Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. handed down the death sentence. Muhammad, who briefly served as his own lawyer during last year's trial, made a similar claim of innocence in his opening statement to the jury.

``Just like I said at the beginning, I had nothing to do with this, and I'll say again, I had nothing to do with this,'' Muhammad said Tuesday.

He told the judge he plans to appeal, and urged Millette, ``Don't make a fool of the Constitution of the United States of America.''

But Millette said the jury's recommendation of death at last year's trial was proper and that the evidence of guilt was ``overwhelming.''

``These offenses are so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension,'' the judge said.

Muhammad was clean-shaven during the trial but wore a slightly graying, unkempt beard at sentencing. He was dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit.

About 50 family members of sniper victims were in the courtroom. One silently shook his fist and a woman nodded her head as Millette announced the sentence. Muhammad showed no emotion.

After the hearing, the sister of Hong Im Ballenger, allegedly killed by Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, in Baton Rouge, La., in the weeks before the D.C. attacks, said Muhammad deserved to die.

``He killed so many innocent people,'' said a tearful Kwang Im Szuszka. ``My nephew is 12 years old and he needs his mommy. ... It breaks my heart.''

Vijay Walekar, brother of Premkumar Walekar, who died on the first day of the sniper spree, said he did not care that Muhammad denied responsibility.

``I don't take his words for the truth. I know he did it,'' Walekar said.

Defense lawyer Peter Greenspun pleaded for Millette to show mercy and said Muhammad is not inherently evil.

``I've represented a lot of bad guys,'' Greenspun said. ``I've represented guys that you look them in the eye and see evil. I've spent a lot of time with John Allen Muhammad and that's not him.''

Prosecutor Paul Ebert disagreed. ``I see nothing but pure evil,'' he said after the hearing.

Millette ordered that Muhammad be executed on Oct. 14, but that date likely will be postponed to allow appeals.

Muhammad, 43, was convicted of capital murder on Nov. 17 and a jury recommended he be sentenced to death for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas.

Malvo is to be sentenced Wednesday. Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush has no leeway to alter Malvo's life sentence. In Virginia, judges can accept a jury's sentence recommendation or reduce it, but cannot increase it.

During Muhammad's trial, prosecutors described him as ``captain of a killing team'' and portrayed him as a Malvo's father figure, a stern and controlling man who trained the teenager to do his bidding.

Muhammad's lawyers said the case will automatically be appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

They have argued that under Virginia law only the triggerman in a shooting death can be eligible for the death penalty. The six-week trial never conclusively determined who was the triggerman in the killings, and much of the evidence suggests Malvo was the shooter.

The defense team also argued that a second capital conviction based on a new anti-terrorism law is both unconstitutional and improperly applied to Muhammad. The Virginia legislature passed the law after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, envisioning al-Qaida-style terrorism.

Prosecutors said the circumstances of the October 2002 sniper spree fit that definition of terrorism like a glove. Muhammad and Malvo demanded a $10 million payment from the government to stop the shootings and left notes at shooting scenes promising ``more body bags'' if their demands weren't met.

The capital-area killings began on Oct. 2, 2002, when the pair shot a 55-year-old man to death outside a Wheaton, Md., supermarket. The following day, five people were killed in Maryland and Washington - four within a span of about two hours. On Oct. 4, the two expanded their shooting spree to Virginia, seriously wounding a woman.

From then until the two were captured Oct. 24, millions of residents lived in fear. Schools as far south as Richmond closed down, while others canceled all outdoor activities.

Muhammad and Malvo were captured at a highway rest stop near Myersville, Md., in a car that had been altered to allow someone to fire a high-powered rifle from inside the trunk.

-- AP Writer Justin Bergman contributed to this story

03/09/04 15:40 EST