Convicted murderer Lee Boyd Malvo will be resentenced in Virginia after a federal judge's ruling late last week overturned his two life sentences for the sniper attacks in the Washington area in 2002.
Malvo was half of the D.C. sniper duo that shot and killed 10 people and injured three in September and October 2002. The other sniper, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in Virginia in 2009 for his crimes.
Because of the resentencing order from U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson, the surviving victims and the loved ones of those killed by the D.C. snipers may soon find themselves back in court. Two of the victims, a 13-year-old student in Bowie, Maryland, and a 55-year-old pizzeria owner from Clinton, Maryland, survived their attacks.
“Every time there’s a new court proceeding, it reopens the wounds, and they have to suffer through it again and live through it again,” said Glenn Ivey, the former Prince George’s County State Attorney at the time of the sniper attacks.
Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in Frederick County, Maryland, after shooting and killing people in Maryland and Virginia. Both were tried and convicted in the courts in each state for the murders.
Ivey decided not to prosecute Mohammad or Malvo in his county because of the murder convictions.
“After (Malvo) was convicted in both jurisdictions, I didn’t think it made sense from a taxpayer dollar perspective to move forward with the cases,” Ivey said.
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Malvo was sentenced to life without parole by a Virginia court for his part in the shooting deaths. At the time of his sentencing, he was 17 and could not be executed for his crimes.
In 2017, his sentences did not comply with current Supreme Court case law that judges must follow when sentencing juveniles. Jackson’s ruling will send Malvo’s case back to court in Chesapeake and Spotsylvania counties for resentencing only.
“It was a Supreme Court decision that came out and said, essentially, you can’t sentence juveniles without parole and death penalty, but it came out after he was sentenced,” Ivey said. “Usually, they don’t got back and make the change, but the federal judge here decided to do it.”
“From my perspective, I think, at the end of the day, he’s going to end up spending the rest of his life in jail,” he said.
The dates for the resentencing have not been announced. Malvo remains in a Virginia prison.