Washington sniper sentenced to death

Sniper John Allen Muhammad has been sentenced to death for his role in the October 2002 killing spree that left 10 people dead in the Washington DC area.

Judge LeRoy F. Millette turned aside a plea from Muhammad’s lawyers to spare their client’s life.

He ordered him to be executed on October 14, but that date likely will be postponed to allow appeals.

Muhammad, 43, was convicted of capital murder last November and the jury in Manassas, Virginia, recommended he be sentenced to death for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers at a petrol station.

Muhammad denied any involvement in the killings today, telling the judge, “Don’t make a fool of the Constitution of the United States of America.

“Just like I said at the beginning, I had nothing to do with this, and I’ll say again, I had nothing to do with this,” Muhammad said.

Defence lawyers had filed a motion yesterday arguing that life in prison was the more appropriate sentence to eliminate the disparity between Muhammad’s punishment and that of his 18-year-old partner in the killings, Lee Boyd Malvo.

Malvo, who will be formally sentenced in Chesapeake tomorrow, was given life in prison by the jury in that case. Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush has no leeway to alter that sentence.

In Virginia, judges can accept a jury’s sentence recommendation or reduce it, but cannot increase it.