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Muhammad seeks prosecutors information { May 17 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1498-2003May16.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1498-2003May16.html
Muhammad Seeks Prosecutors' Information
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 17, 2003; Page A12
Attorneys for sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad want more information about any of the crimes linked to their client that prosecutors might use at his trial.
In a motion filed yesterday in Prince William County Circuit Court, Muhammad's defense team asked Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. to order prosecutors to turn over specific details about any crimes or bad acts that they plan to present at Muhammad's capital murder trial, which is scheduled to begin in October.
The defense attorneys, Peter D. Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, also asked for details about crimes associated with Muhammad's alleged co-conspirator, Lee Boyd Malvo, 18.
Muhammad's attorneys argue that they should be told of any misconduct that investigators have unearthed from the months leading up to the series of 19 sniper shootings last September and October that claimed 13 lives in the Washington region and elsewhere.
Those shootings, which have been the focus of the regional sniper task force's investigation, include the Oct. 9 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas, for which Muhammad, 42, is charged, and the Oct. 14 slaying of Linda Franklin at a Home Depot store in Seven Corners, for which Malvo is scheduled to be tried in November.
In addition to details about Meyers's shooting, Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert already has provided Muhammad's lawyers with a list of 11 other fatal shootings: nine in the Washington area and incidents two days apart in Montgomery, Ala., and Baton Rouge, La., in September. Prosecutors plan to use those shootings as support for one capital murder indictment against Muhammad that alleges he killed more than one person in a three-year period.
But prosecutors also could put evidence of other crimes before a jury -- including shootings in Washington state, Atlanta and Maryland that preceded the sniper slayings -- to prove a capital murder charge that alleges Muhammad carried out the attacks as an act of terrorism to extort $10 million from the government. And federal investigators have been looking into allegations that Muhammad falsified immigration documents to help people enter the country illegally.
Greenspun and Shapiro asked for the date, time, place and specific allegation "of any other criminal act," saying they believe that the prosecution's theory of the case is that Muhammad "over a period of at least several months, engaged in criminal activity leading up to" the Washington-area shootings.
"Without such specificity, the accused cannot be prepared to confront witnesses, present evidence, prepare to defend allegations, and otherwise prepare to proceed to trial," the attorneys wrote.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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