discussion/news posting: dc sniper being tried for 2nd death penalty.

Sniper to Get Second Death-Penalty Trial

source: AP http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...niper_shootings

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

FAIRFAX, Va. - Fairfax County is going ahead with plans for a second death-penalty trial of convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, and his lawyers said Wednesday they might try to call the prosecutor as a witness.

Defense attorneys Jonathan Shapiro and Peter Greenspun, who represented Muhammad in his first trial, have been appointed to represent him in a trial in the killing of FBI (news - web sites) analyst Linda Franklin, clearing the way for the case to move forward, Shapiro said.

Shapiro said he expects to seek to delay the trial until the conclusion of Muhammad's appeal of his conviction in his first trial, when he was sentenced to death for the murder of Dean H. Meyers at a Prince William County gas station.

The second trial will be prosecuted by Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr., who last year obtained a conviction and life sentence for Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad's teenage accomplice in the series of attacks that killed 10 people in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia in October 2002.

Horan has said a second conviction of Muhammad could serve as "an insurance policy" in case an appeals court overturns his first conviction.

Shapiro said Horan made numerous statements throughout Malvo's trial that work to Muhammad's benefit and said they may seek to call Horan as a witness.

"It's going to be a huge issue," Shapiro said. "You've got the very same guy who took these positions regarding Malvo now taking another position" with regard to Muhammad.

Malvo's lawyers put up an insanity defense, saying the defendant, 17 at the time of the killings, had been brainwashed by Muhammad, but Horan strongly disputed that, portraying Malvo as willful and violent well before he ever met Muhammad.

"You can talk about John Muhammad all you want," Horan said in his closing. "Maybe it was his plan. Maybe it was his idea. But the evidence stamps this defendant as the shooter. ... He did it. Not John Muhammad."

Horan had warned that the state's budget crisis might force him to reconsider trying Muhammad in Fairfax if funding to his office were cut.

Earlier this month, however, the General Assembly passed a two-year, $60 billion budget that largely avoided some of the severe cuts that had been previously been considered.

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okay, so my original topic to talk about sucks, let's talk about the death penalty. why are you for/against? do you feel the government hands out too many death penalties or not enough?

personally, i think the death penalty here in cali is right where it should be. we do lethal injections only, and we actually only execute about 1 or 2 people a year, if that. most of the others are in the appeals process, which is long and drawn out. in california, you are more likely to die on death row from natural causes than from the actual lethal injection. a large part of me thinks that the state shouldn't use the death penalty anymore. it's barbaric and illogical. like the berkeley soccer-mom bumper sticker says: "why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" but on the other hand, if my (theoretical) child was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and then murdered by some creepy guy in a white panel van, you'd be damn sure i'd want that mother fucker hung from the highest tree. so i don't know. i'd want him sitting in a jail cell, knowing he was going to die before he ever set foot off the grounds of san quentin, but i might settle for life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

your turn.

i remember when this fucker was around here everyone was freaking out, i stopped painting too since my mother wanted me to for that period and walking into the woods with bags and shit wasnt cool, that fucker deserves to die.

This is ridiculous. They should just kill the guy and stop wasting court time and taxpayer money. What are they going to do, kill him twice?

They gonna get sentenced to death in every person they killed.....These are gonna be the only guys in history to be killed (death toll #) times....