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Sniper trial likely to turn on triggerman

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) — The murder and terrorism trial of John Muhammad, the older of two suspects in the sniper shootings that jolted Washington a year ago, could turn on one simple question: Did he pull the trigger?

If a Virginia jury finds him guilty, the case would then focus on an equally stark question: Should Muhammad live or die? Another jury will decide what should happen to his young traveling companion, Lee Malvo, an 18-year-old who is to be tried as an adult on separate murder charges.

Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran, goes on trial Tuesday in Virginia Beach, Va., for the shooting death of a 53-year-old Maryland man gunned down Oct. 9, 2002, as he refueled his car in Manassas, Va.

The trial was moved 200 miles away in hopes of finding an unbiased jury, something deemed impossible in the Washington area.

This death was one of 10 killings and three other gunshot woundings that terrorized the U.S. capital and its suburbs for three weeks last autumn.

Muhammad and Malvo have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths, in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

Schools kept children inside, and sporting events were called off. The climate of fear was such that residents crouched behind their cars as they pumped gas so that they would be smaller targets. Many simply stayed indoors.

Muhammad is charged with capital murder under two statutes, including a Virginia anti-terrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Both charges carry a possible death sentence.

Death penalty case

The capital murder charge provides for the death penalty in cases of multiple murders, and only the triggerman faces execution. The anti-terrorism law does not require proof of who pulled the trigger, but Muhammad is the first to be charged under this law, and it might face constitutional challenges.

The triggerman’s identity is important, because Muhammad’s lawyers maintain Malvo did the shooting, while Malvo’s attorneys contend their client, who was 17 at the time, was brainwashed by Muhammad. Malvo’s team plans an insanity defense when he goes on trial Nov. 10 in Chesapeake, Va.

As Muhammad’s trial approached, the publicity that attended the crimes resurfaced. Two books are in stores: “Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation,” by two Washington Post reporters, and “Three Weeks in October: The Manhunt for the Serial Sniper,” by Charles Moose, the former police chief in Montgomery County, Md., where five people were killed.

The USA Network plans to air a two-hour docudrama on the case, “DC Sniper: 23 Days of Fear,” Oct. 17, presumably while Muhammad’s case proceeds and before Malvo’s begins.

With such publicity, the move to Virginia Beach might preclude finding unbiased jurors, but James Broccoletti, a criminal defense attorney in nearby Norfolk, said it was possible.

“I think that you’re going to find that 90 percent of the (potential jury) pool will know about the case, but you’re going to find 12 to 14 people … that’ll say despite what they’ve read, they can put whatever they’ve read aside and focus on the evidence that’s presented,” Broccoletti said in a telephone interview.

He said Virginia Beach juries can be difficult for criminal defendants, with a conservative population that includes many military personnel and military retirees who have not traditionally balked at the death penalty.

He said the jury pool is likely to be mainly white, which could pose problems for Muhammad, who is African-American.