Federal Charges Filed Against Suspected Sniper in US

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Federal Charges Filed Against Suspected Sniper in US

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The US Justice Department filed a 20-count criminal complaint Tuesday against John Allen Muhammad in connection with the Washington-area sniper case, which was part of an effort to pursue the death penalty against him.

The complaint did not name Muhammad's alleged accomplice, John Lee Malvo, 17, because he is a juvenile. One of the charges, the use of a firearm during a violent crime that causes a person's death, could trigger the death penalty.

"It's important that we have available the most serious penalties in a setting like this," Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference.

Other charges against Muhammad, 41, include conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, conspiracy to affect interstate commerce by extortion and threats of violence, and firing a weapon in a school zone.

Prosecutors in three Virginia counties filed murder and attempted murder charges Monday against Muhammad and Malvo. The two had already been charged with six counts of first degree murder in Montgomery County, Maryland, where six of the killings occurred since Oct. 2.

Ten people were killed and three wounded in areas around Washington DC before the suspects were apprehended Thursday.

The two also faced charges of capital murder in Montgomery, Alabama, for the shooting death of a woman during a Sept. 21 liquor store robbery.

Police in the western state of Washington have also named Muhammad and Malvo as suspects in a killing in Tacoma this year and said a weapon that may have been used by one of the men was involved in the vandalism of a local synagogue.

Prosecutors from Virginia, Maryland and the federal government are working to figure out who should bring the two men to trial first in order to stand a better chance of imposing the death penalty.

Virginia has put 86 people to death since the death penalty wasreinstated in 1976. There is currently a moratorium on executions in Maryland but Gov. Parris Glendening has said the moratorium would be lifted for this case.

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