JURIST - Paper Chase: Malvo testifies in second DC sniper trial

[JURIST] Lee Boyd Malvo [BBC profile] testified Tuesday in a Maryland court against John Allen Muhammad [BBC profile] in Muhammad's second trial [JURIST report] involving the murder of six people in Maryland during a three-week shooting spree [BBC backgrounder] in the Washington, DC area in 2002. Malvo testified that Muhammad planned to "terrorize" the nation prior to the sniper attacks and had outlined a plan to shoot six people a day for 30 days before targeting schools, school buses and children's hospitals with a bombing campaign. Muhammad has said that he planned to kidnap his three children that he lost in a custody dispute, and Malvo testified that he tried to persuade Muhammad to just kidnap the children without any shootings.

Citing his right against self-incrimination, Malvo had refused to testify in Muhammad's first trial in Virginia, where Muhammad has already been sentenced to death [JURIST report] for one murder. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty [JURIST report] for Muhammad in this second trial, but want a second conviction in case an appeals court overturns the Virginia conviction, and to provide a sense of relief and justice in Maryland. Malvo is serving a life sentence for the Virginia murder, and informed the Maryland judge that he intends to plead guilty to the Maryland murder charges. AP has more.

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