DAVID DISHNEAU, The Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- You only live once, but convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad could get multiple death sentences if prosecutors in Maryland and Louisiana have their way.
Their desire to try him for slayings in their jurisdictions, despite his conviction and likely death sentence in Virginia, raises questions about whether justice everywhere is worth the cost.
Eager prosecutors say trials give closure to victims and their families, and that convictions in multiple jurisdictions are insurance against reversals on appeal.
But others, including some of Muhammad’s alleged victims, say justice was served once and for all by his Nov. 17 conviction for the murder of Dean H. Meyers and the jury’s recommendation Monday that Muhammad be executed for that crime.
The venue for Muhammad’s next trial, if there is one, won’t be decided until after his Feb. 12 sentencing, said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner. Once sentenced, Muhammad will become a ward of the state, giving the Virginia governor authority over his whereabouts, said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Virginia attorney general’s office.
Meyers, of Gaithersburg, Md., was shot at a gas station in Manassas, Va., on Oct. 9, 2002. Six days earlier, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was fatally shot at a gas station in Kensington, Md. Her father, Marion Lewis, said the outcome of the Virginia trial “satisfies our sense of justice for the most part.”
“It would be nice to hear that he was convicted for Lori’s murder, also, but to hear that he is convicted and sentenced to death will do,” Lewis said Tuesday from his home in Mountain Home, Idaho.
Police say Lewis’ daughter was among six people whose deaths in Montgomery County were linked by ballistic and other evidence to Muhammad and his alleged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo. Similar evidence tied the pair to seven other fatal shootings in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia and the District of Columbia, authorities say. They are also suspected in seven nonfatal shootings.
Malvo is standing trial in Chesapeake, Va., for the murder of Linda Franklin in Fairfax County, Va.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas Gansler said he still aims to try both men for murder in his jurisdiction, and to seek to the death penalty for Muhammad. Malvo is exempt from capital punishment in Maryland because he was 17 when he allegedly committed the crimes.
Gansler said the families of some Maryland victims “desperately want to have their day in court.”
“Nobody has stood up in a jury and said these people should be held accountable for the deaths of their loved ones. Part of a criminal process, part of a criminal trial, is the healing process of the community -- not just for the victims of the crimes, but in this case, the whole community that was in some sense victimized by this case,” Gansler said.
Other Maryland officials are divided on the issue.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan said another trial would be hard on the victims’ families, but Gov. Robert Ehrlich expressed support Tuesday for trying Muhammad in Maryland for what he described as “obviously a case of domestic terrorism.”
In Baton Rouge, La., prosecutor John Sinquefield said he intends to prosecute Muhammad and Malvo for the murder of Hong Im Ballenger, who was killed during a robbery there. Both men would be eligible for the death penalty in Louisiana, if convicted.
Roscoe Howard, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, which does not have the death penalty, has said he plans to bring the pair there to be tried for the murder of Pascal Charlot.
Authorities in some states are hedging.
The Montgomery County, Ala., prosecutor’s office said it still wants to try Muhammad and Malvo for capital murder in the death of Claudine Parker, but Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson said bringing them there would be “a tremendous expense.”
The pair have not yet been indicted in Atlanta, where Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is awaiting the outcomes of other trials before deciding whether to prosecute them for the slaying of Million Waldemariam.
“It may not be necessary to go through the expense and difficulty and time involved in a trial if they’ve already been convicted and sentenced to death in other jurisdictions,” spokesman Erik Friedly said.
The cost to taxpayers of a big murder case can run into millions of dollars. Muhammad and Malvo’s publicly funded defenders racked up nearly $900,000 in fees and expenses in the year before their trials. The combined legal expenses in the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 1997 totaled $96 million, according to government records.
Costs for more sniper trials might include transporting witnesses, sequestering jurors and pursuing appeals that could go on for years, said Douglas Colbert, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.
“It would be very expensive, it would be tough emotionally on the witnesses and the logistics could be nightmarish,” Colbert said. “I think you have to be guided by the wishes of the victims, their families, the public costs and whether the motivation speaks to what the community wants, as best as that can be determined.”
Gansler wouldn’t speculate on the expense of trying even one of the sniper defendants, but he said a successful death penalty prosecution saves taxpayers money in the long run over the cost of incarceration.
Paul J. LaRuffa, a restaurateur in neighboring Prince George’s County who was wounded in a shooting linked to the snipers, said his justice came when Muhammad was convicted. LaRuffa said he isn’t sure whether Gansler wants a trial for the sniper victims or for himself.
“Lawyers fight and you really wonder how much of that is ego and how much of that is in the pursuit of justice,” LaRuffa said.