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D.C. Sniper Competent to Defend Himself?

By Chris

Defense lawyers for John Allen Muhammad, the D.C. Sniper, argued on Tuesday that he was incompetent to represent himself for two days of his 2003 trial. The hearing at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could reverse Muhammad’s conviction and sentence, or could result in a new jury trial. Muhammad was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of Dean Meyers, one of the 10 victims of Muhammad and his 17-year-old accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo. Malvo, the shooter, received a life sentence for his role in the shootings that terrorized Virginia, Maryland, D.C., and much of the eastern seaboard in 2002. In the 90-minute hearing, Jon Sheldon, Muhammad?s defense attorney, cited evidence that his client’s brain was damaged by childhood beatings as cause for Muhammad’s incompetence, according to a report by the Richmond Times Dispatch...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Criminal Defense Blog on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).