DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo must be resentenced, Maryland high court says

By Rashard Rose and Theresa Waldrop, CNN

Nearly two decades after a serial sniper spree that terrorized the Washington, DC, area and left 10 people dead, a Maryland appeals court ruled that Lee Boyd Malvo, who was convicted for his role in the shootings, must be resentenced.

Malvo was 17 years old when the crimes were committed in October 2002. He was sentenced to life without parole in both Maryland and Virginia. The Maryland Court of Appeals based its Friday ruling on the US Supreme Court’s guidance on juvenile offenders.

The Supreme Court in decisions that occurred after Malvo’s sentencing held that life without parole for youthful offenders is not permitted under the Eighth Amendment “if a sentencing court determines that the offender’s crime was the result of transient immaturity, as opposed to permanent incorrigibility,” Judge Robert McDonald wrote. It isn’t clear that the sentencing judge reached the latter conclusion in Malvo’s case, the judge said.

Malvo is currently in the Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, where he is serving life sentences, and the judge noted that it “may be an academic question in Mr. Malvo’s case.”

“(H)e would first have to be granted parole in Virginia before his consecutive life sentences in Maryland even begin,” McDonald said.

“We hold only that the Eighth Amendment requires that he receive a new sentencing hearing at which the sentencing court, now cognizant of the principles elucidated by the Supreme Court, is able to consider whether or not he is constitutionally eligible for life without parole under those decisions.” McDonald said.

Malvo’s partner in the shootings, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in November 2009 in Virginia for his part in the shootings. He was 41 at the time of the sniper attacks.

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