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Jury recommends death for muhammad { November 24 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-112403sniper_lat,1,7484043.story?coll=la-home-headlineshttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-112403sniper_lat,1,7484043.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Jury Recommends Death for Muhammad
By Daryl Strickland
Times Staff Writer
10:10 AM PST, November 24, 2003
A jury today recommended that John Allen Muhammad be put to death for killing a man in a series of sniper killings that spread panic throughout the Washington, D.C., area last fall.
In Virginia Beach, Va., the jury of seven men and five women deliberated for five hours over two days before they returned their decision for death this morning on capitol murder and terrorism charges. The jury also handed Muhammad 10 years for conspiracy, and three years for use of firearms. Formal sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 12.
The decision is "a victory for society," Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul B. Ebert said outside the courthouse. He said the death penalty is reserved for "the worst of the worst" and that John Muhammad certainly fell into that category, he said.
He would not comment on what motives he thought Muhammad may have had, but said he thought it was clear that Muhammad "doesn't deserve to be in society."
Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran, was convicted of murder last week in the three weeks of sniper shootings that left 10 people dead and three others wounded. His alleged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, is being tried separately in Chesapeake, Va., 15 miles away.
Afterward, while standing on the courthouse steps, some jurors described their struggle with their decision. Dennis Bowman, for instance, said he changed his mind from a penalty of life in prison to the death penalty after a sleepless night.
While citing no clear-cut reason, Bowman said he was fearful that Muhammad would kill again, perhaps an inmate or guard in prison. Moreover, he also said he felt Muhammad showed a lack of remorse, and other jurors agreed.
"The lack of remorse capped it for us," Bowman said.
Other jurors concluded death for Muhammad for the violent, callous nature of the shootings. Heather Best-Teague, a juror, said the hardest part of recommending death was that Muhammad's children would become fatherless. But she said she pushed aside her emotions. "We know we made the right one," she said of the jury's decision.
In Virginia, which executes more death row inmates than any state except Texas, a jury recommending the death penalty had to find that the defendant represents a continuing threat to society or that his actions reflected a depraved mind.
Under Virginia law, the jury that convicted Muhammad of capital murder a week ago after a six-week trial had two sentencing options: It could recommend that he be put to death by lethal injection, or it could recommend life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Judge Leroy F. Millette Jr. must approve the jury's recommendation, and the judge could reduce a death sentence to life in prison, but that has rarely occurred in Virginia.
Both murder counts against Muhammad stemmed from a single act of homicide in the Oct. 9, 2002, rifle slaying of Dean H. Meyers at a Virginia gas station. Muhammad's alleged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is on trial in nearby Chesapeake, Va., in another sniper killing.
Muhammad's character took a blow last week when his former wife, Mildred, told the court that he repeatedly had threatened to kill her before their separation in 1999.
In addition to calling friends, acquaintances and a family member, who said that Muhammad had changed for the worse after losing custody of his three children in September 2002.
Muhammad's court-appointed attorneys spent last week trying to convince jurors that his admirable qualities should prevent him from execution. He was polite, and a caring family man, witnesses said. The defense played a video that showed him playing with his children.
"You can walk. Now go ahead and walk to daddy," Muhammad said on the video as one of his daughters took her first steps. "Let me see the teeth," he said in another sequence, and his daughter responded with a big smile.
In arguing for the death penalty, prosecutors said the portrayal did not lessen the heinous nature of the sniper attacks. Victims were targeted as they went about daily activities — pumping gas, sitting in a park, leaving a Home Depot with a cart of new purchases, walking out of a restaurant.
Most of the evidence against Muhammad was circumstantial, and the defense has argued there was no evidence that he "directed or ordered" Malvo to fire the rifle used in the killings.
They also said that prosecutors had failed to prove that Muhammad was the shooter in the multiple murders he is accused of, or that the killing he was convicted of was a "terrorist act."
For their part, prosecutors called 120 witnesses, showed jurors 400 evidence exhibits and methodically traced killings from the Deep South up to the Washington, D.C., area.
Times Staff Writers Stephen Braun, David Lamb and Zeke Minaya contributed to this story.
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