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Teen sniper malvo pleads innocent { November 10 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3371036,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3371036,00.html
Teen Sniper Suspect Malvo Pleads Innocent
Monday November 10, 2003 3:31 PM
By ADRIENNE SCHWISOW
Associated Press Writer
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo pleaded innocent to murder Monday as his trial opened in the slaying of an FBI analyst shot to death during the three-week sniper spree in the Washington, D.C., area last fall.
The 18-year-old responded, ``Not guilty,'' in a clear voice each time when asked for his plea to two counts of capital murder and to one count of using a firearm in a felony.
He politely responded, ``Yes, ma'am,'' when the judge asked if he was ready for trial.
Defense attorney Craig Cooley told Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush that he plans to present a defense of innocent by reason of insanity.
Before the arraignment, defense attorneys asked Roush to dismiss one of the capital murder charges, which alleges that Malvo committed an act of terrorism when he allegedly shot Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot in northern Virginia.
Defense attorney Mark Petrovich argued that the grand jury's indictment was tainted. Petrovich noted that the judge had moved trials about 200 miles to Chesapeake partly because northern Virginia residents were terrorized by the sniper spree. He said the grand jury also should have been moved.
The judge denied the defense request, saying, ``I never heard of such a thing as a change of venue for a grand jury.''
Defense lawyers plan to argue that Malvo was so brainwashed by fellow suspect John Allen Muhammad, 42, that he either did not know what he was doing or could not control himself.
It likely will be a tough sell - and risky.
Studies have indicated that defendants who mount insanity defenses generally have higher conviction rates than those who don't, said Thomas L. Hafemeister, director of legal studies at the Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy in Charlottesville.
``A lot of people see insane individuals as both very bad and very scary,'' said Hafemeister, who also teaches at the University of Virginia law school. ``The risk for the defense is that if they fail to convince the jury, then essentially they have a defendant who has acknowledged doing the deed and being mentally unstable, which creates a very scary person in the minds of the jurors.''
Insanity defenses are raised in about 1 percent of felony cases in the United States, and heard by juries in even fewer, Hafemeister said.
Malvo and Muhammad are being tried for different killings by prosecutors from two Virginia counties. Both face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.
Malvo's lawyers argue that he only confessed to shootings to protect Muhammad, whom he called father, and that Muhammad was the mastermind of the sniper attacks.
Even if that is true, the prosecutors argue, Malvo is equally responsible for the killings. They say he laughed and bragged about the shootings to interrogators and prison guards.
During the first three weeks of Muhammad's trial, prosecutors from Prince William County combined emotional testimony from victims and victims' relatives with forensic evidence, including DNA linking Muhammad to a rifle sight found in his car. Like Malvo, Muhammad is on trial only for one killing, but to get the death penalty, the prosecution needs to prove participation in multiple killings or terrorizing of the public.
Muhammad's prosecutors argue it doesn't matter who pulled the trigger and say Muhammad, who referred to Malvo as his son and plunged him into a lifestyle of rigor and discipline, was the ``moving spirit.'' That most of the evidence can be traced to Malvo only shows how carefully Muhammad controlled the situation, they contend.
``Our strategy is their strategy,'' Malvo lawyer Michael Arif said. ``If you watch the prosecutors (in Muhammad's case) carefully, they will never put on evidence that Lee was the shooter in any of the shootings in question.''
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