Malvo Verdict: Guilty of Murder

[JohnLocke]

Malvo Verdict: Guilty of Murder

Rita Simon
Thursday, December 18, 2003

The jury in the capital murder case of teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo finished deliberations today and reached a verdict of guilty on all counts.
..."What the jury was telling Lee Boyd Malvo and the American public was that they were horrified by the crimes that he and John Muhammad committed -- that they found no excuse for his, Lee Boyd Malvo's, participation in those horrendous acts. They believed that he understood what he was doing and was a willing supporter of John Muhammad. He might have been someone influenced by Mr. Muhammad but not to the degree that he did not understand right from wrong."
...
Rita Simon: As I understand it the jury verdict was that Lee Boyd Malvo was guilty of capital murder. In that case, what happens next is that there will be a separate penalty hearing and the jury makes the decision of whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
...
The jury did deliberate for just about two full days and usually what happens in a jury deliberation is that they go over every piece of evidence and every witness' testimony before they arrive at a verdict. By the time they're through deliberating they have, in fact, gone over the whole trial, reproduced the whole trial. In doing so, they, I would guess, considered the testimony of the two defense psychiatrists as well as the testimony of the psychiatrists who testified for the prosecution and apparently, given their verdict, they were more impressed with what the prosecution psychiatrist had to say instead of the defense. But it is also important to note that the jury looked at the defendent and took into account his behavior after he was picked up by the police in which he was almost boasting in his reports about having killed the people he was charged with killing.
...
Yes, they can execute a teenager in Virginia. By the way, as of the time of the jury's verdict, Lee Boyd Malvo was no longer a teenager, he was 18 years old. (Teenagers are persons who are less than 18 years old in most states.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12420-2003Dec18.html

[westman]

1. No problem with this one.