Lee Boyd Malvo Will be having a Supreme Court Hearing

Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced to four life terms after he committed crimes in Virginia, Washington and Maryland as a teenager. The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, United States recently agreed to consider Virginia’s plea to reinstate the life without parole sentence that he was given, even though he was only 17-years-old when he participated in the sniper shootings that caused terror in the Washington DC, region in 2002.
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John Allen Muhammad who was 41-years-old at the time and Malvo, fatally shot 10 persons in Maryland, Washington and Virginia. Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed in 2009 and Malvo was sentenced to life without parole.
Malvo’s life without parole sentence was legal when it was handed down at the time, but the justice is now prepared to take up the state’s appeal in the case.

The 4th Circuit ruled again last year, because while Malvo’s life without parole sentence was legal when they were imposed, Supreme Court made a new decision that followed altered sentencing requirements for juvenile offenders.

The Supreme Court will review the decision but the justices did not comment in agreeing to hear the case, it will be argued in the fall.

The judges for the appeals court said a resentencing could determine whether Malvo qualifies as “one of the rare juvenile offenders” whose “crime reflects permanent incorrigibility” or the “transient immaturity of youth” in which case he would be entitled to a sentence short of life without parole.

Malvo was sentenced to four life terms for crimes he committed in Virginia. But the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled last year that while Malvo’s life-without-parole sentences were legal when they were imposed, Supreme Court decisions that followed altered sentencing requirements for juvenile offenders.

People in the area still remember how scary it was to be hearing about random shootings during the three weeks time period when Malvo and Muhammad were shooting persons as they did their everyday activities.

The Virginia appeal was among four criminal cases that were added to the court’s docket for the term that begins in October.