Offshoreonly.com - O.T. sniper jurors divided on death penalty

What the hell is there to be divided about... :mad:

Note Suggests Sniper Jurors Are Divided
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By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Jurors deliberated the fate of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad on Friday without reaching a decision, indicating in a message to the judge that they were divided.

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Slideshow: Sniper Case

In a note sent after nearly four hours of deliberations, jurors asked what happens if they cannot reach a unanimous verdict, Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. said.

"We have spent six weeks. ... I would simply urge you to continue your deliberations," the judge told jurors. "We really want to try to get a unanimous decision."

Millette rejected a juror's request to allow jurors to do legal research on the death penalty. He then adjourned the session for the day. Jurors are to return Monday morning.

If the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty, Muhammad automatically would receive life in prison.

The jury is deciding whether Muhammad should die for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers on Oct. 9, 2002, in Manassas, one of the 13 sniper shootings — 10 of them fatal — that terrorized the Washington area last year. He was convicted Monday of two capital murder charges. Jurors then heard arguments and testimony in the sentencing phase and began deliberating Friday morning.

Jurors must weigh whether his crimes are "vile, horrible or inhuman" and whether he poses a future risk if he is given life in prison instead of a death sentence.

In the trial of alleged Muhammad accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, a police detective testified Friday that Malvo laughed when he described two of the shootings.

Malvo is on trial 15 miles away in Chesapeake for the Oct. 14, 2002, shooting of Linda Franklin at a Home Depot. He also faces two capital murder charges.

Fairfax County homicide detective June Boyle said she interviewed Malvo on Nov. 7, 2002, after federal charges were dropped and he was transferred to Virginia from Maryland, where he and Muhammad were arrested.

Boyle said she asked Malvo if he knew where Franklin was hit by the bullet.

"He laughed and pointed here, right here," Boyle said, pointing to the right side of her forehead.

Boyle said when she asked Malvo about the Meyers shooting, he again laughed and said, "He was hit good. Dead immediately." Asked whether he experienced any stress during the sniper attacks, Boyle said Malvo replied, "No. Why stress?"

Boyle said Malvo also told her, "A head shot is best. But you can't always take a head shot because the person could be moving."

Attorneys for Malvo don't dispute that he took part in the sniper attacks, but they contend he was brainwashed by Muhammad and is innocent by reason of insanity.

In closing arguments in the penalty phase, Muhammad's defense attorney implored jurors Thursday to listen to their consciences, telling them "a life is literally in your hands."

"It is one of the biggest decisions you will make in your whole life," defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro told them. The defense showed jurors home videos on which Muhammad coaxes his toddling daughter to take her first steps and prods his young son to flex his muscles like his dad.

But prosecutors, urging jurors to sentence him to death, noted the string of sniper shootings left 21 children without parents, some as young as 6 months old.

"He doesn't care about children, human life or anything else God put on this earth except himself," Prince William County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney James Willett said.