http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017...ence-thrown-out.html

DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo's life sentence thrown out

A federal district court judge has overturned the sentence of Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the two people convicted in D.C.-area Beltway sniper attacks nearly 15 years ago, according to a ruling released Friday.

Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the sniper-style attacks committed around the region in October 2002 along with John Allen Muhammad. Ten people were killed and three others were shot during a three-week period.

Malvo appealed to the court saying he should not have been sentenced to life without parole because he was 17 years old at the time of the murders and he based his appeal on the Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama.

The decision in the Supreme Court case ruled juveniles are constitutionally different from adults for the purposes of sentencing "because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform," which makes them "less deserving of the most severe punishments." Judge Raymond Jackson agreed and ordered the overturning of the sentence.

Malvo was convicted in one trial in Virginia and entered an Alford plea in another. He had previously filed two motions for writs of habeas corpus that failed.

Malvo's case has been remanded back to Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to issue a new sentence.

Muhammad and Malvo used a rifle to shoot over a dozen people from a modified trunk of a Chevrolet Caprice in random attacks in Maryland, Virginia and D.C.

OK, Death Penalty it is, then

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
OK, Death Penalty it is, then

Also not allowable for juvenile sentences, per another Supreme Court ruling - 2005's Roper v. Simmons.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
OK, Death Penalty it is, then

I'll drink to that.

There is nothing remarkable about this, in the face of the Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, in which Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority of the court "that mandatory life without parole for those under age of 18 at the time of their crime violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments."

Whether that ruling is "correct" or not, it is now law.

As I read the summary, a juvenile can be sentenced to life in prison but not with no possibility of parole.

Ok, so sentence him to life in prison, eligible for parole in say, 150 years?

Federal Judge Raymond Jackson - Clinton appointee

wiki:

DC sniper

The D.C. or Beltway sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that took place over three weeks in October 2002 in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia

Their crime spree began in February 2002 with murders and robberies in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, which resulted in seven deaths and seven injuries, bringing the ten-month shooting spree total to 17 deaths and 10 injuries .

Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks

In John Allen Muhammad's May 2006 trial in Montgomery County, Maryland, Lee Boyd Malvo took the stand and confessed to the 17 murders.

Part of his testimony concerned Muhammad's complete multiphase plan. His plan consisted of three phases in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas

Muhammad's goal in Phase One was to kill six white people a day for 30 days. Malvo went on to describe how Phase One did not go as planned due to heavy traffic and the lack of a clear shot or getaway at locations.

Phase Two was meant to take place in Baltimore, Maryland. Malvo described how this phase was close to being implemented, but was not carried out. Phase Two was intended to begin by killing a pregnant woman by shooting her in the stomach. The next step would have been to shoot and kill a Baltimore police officer. Then, at the officer's funeral, they planned to create several improvised explosive devices complete with shrapnel.

The last phase was to take place during or shortly after Phase Two, which was to extort several million dollars from the United States government. This money would be used to finance a larger plan, to travel north to Canada. Along the way, they would stop in YMCAs and orphanages recruiting other impressionable young boys with no parents or guidance. Muhammad thought he could act as their father figure as he did with Malvo.

Once he recruited a large number of young boys and made his way up to Canada, he would begin their training. Malvo described how John Muhammad intended to train boys in weapons and stealth as he had been taught. Finally, after their training was complete, John Allen Muhammad would send them out across the United States to carry out mass shootings in many other cities, just as he had done in Washington and Baltimore. These attacks would be coordinated and be intended to send the country into chaos

A serial killer eligible for release. What could go wrong?

Well, if he is released, be sure to publish information about what halfway house he is going to be in...

OK, new sentence. 50 years for each person killed, served consecutively!

Damned liberal asshole judges, anyway.

Klinton appointee, that explains it.

Malvo was 17 when sentenced in October. He would be 18 by February. So four months makes such a difference?

10 consecutive life sentences should do the trick.

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So four months makes such a difference?

Of course it would...if you're a moronic liberal.

Ok, overturn life without parole. 300 to life should get it done.

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
Malvo was 17 when sentenced in October. He would be 18 by February. So four months makes such a difference?

It is the age when the crimes were committed that determines the sentence possibilities.

Making every guilty charge consecutive would do the trick.

Screw him and the judge. Just die in prison.

I lived in the area then. Worried about the people I cared about. I would take the GF at the time car and fill it up for her because many of these shootings happened at gas stations.

Send him back to Virginia to serve his time. Governor Allen abolished parole twenty or so years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Send him back to Virginia to serve his time. Governor Allen abolished parole twenty or so years ago.

He is in Virginia at Red Onion State Prison. The feds deferred prosecution to the State Of Virginia because it was more likely the death penalty would be given. He was given life because the Supreme Court ruled juveniles could not be given the death sentence,so he got life. Now the Supreme court has ruled that is too harsh.

His cohort Muhammad got sentenced to death by a Virginia court.

Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia on November 10, 2009.

This is yet another manifestation of a problem we've been seen pretty often in the last few decades. The only fix is likely a constitutional amendment. This is because the Eighth Amendment creates a fuzzy and unspecified prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The problem being, it provides no direct manner to decide who has the direct authority to decide what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, so it has fallen, by default, to the federal courts.

So you end up with random judges essentially making arbitrary decisions base on their own concept of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, possibly based on precedent where other judges did the same.

The constitution needs to be amended to state that Congress will be the final arbiter of whether a punishment is cruel and unusual, and the the courts cannot overrule a punishment authorized by Congress. Yes, I know Congress isn't particularly popular right now. But unlike the courts, they need to go back to the people and justify their actions. They should be the one making value judgments, not in office for life judges with no accountability.