What did John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo do?
In October 2002, America’s capital was rocked by a series of shootings carried out by snipers over a period of 3 weeks. People were terrified to go out of the house in fear of being shot. The snipers were John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who was only 17 at the time. The pair travelled in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan throughout the Washington metropolitan area, carrying out shootings in Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
In addition to the 3-week spree, they also carried out other shootings that included murders and robberies in several other states. These crimes went on for 6 months, beginning in February 2002. 7 people were killed, and 7 more were injured in these shootings. In the October shootings, 10 people were killed and 3 others were badly injured but survived. In total, Muhammad and Malvo killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a crime wave that lasted a terrifying 10 months.
Americans took a sigh of relief on the 2nd October 2002, when Muhammad and Malvo were arrested. They were found sleeping in their car at a rest place off Interstate 70 near Maryland.
What happened at the trial?
Muhammad and Malvo went to trial for the murders in late 2003, and they were both found guilty of murder and weapons charges. The jury in Muhammad’s case recommended he be sentenced to death, while the jury in Malvo’s trial thought life in prison without parole would be the correct sentence. However, prosecutors wanted the death penalty for Malvo as well. However, in 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution for crimes committed when someone is under the age of 18.
Muhammad was indeed sentenced to death, whereas Malvo was sentenced to 6 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Where are the Washington DC snipers now?
In November 2009, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Centre in Jarratt, Virginia.
Lee Boyd Malvo is serving his life sentence at Virginia’s maximum security Red Onion State Prison in Pound, Wise County. However, in January 2024, a federal judge dismissed 4 life sentences given to Lee Boyd Malvo for his role in the 2002 Virginia sniper shootings. He has ordered new sentencing hearings because Malvo was only 17 at the time of the shootings. Malvo is 38 years old now.
In June 2023, Netflix aired an episode Catching Killers, titled “Trained to Kill: The DC Sniper” which went into detail on the crimes of the sniper killers.
What do you think about the case of the Washington DC snipers? Let us know in the comments below.