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Fact sheet: preparing for trials
(CNN) -- The legal logistics surrounding trials for the two suspects in the 13 sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area have started in earnest, made more complex now that the two are suspected in six earlier shootings around the nation's capital and elsewhere. John Allen Muhammad, 42, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 18, have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths, in Virginia, Maryland, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and the Washington, D.C. area. Muhammad is charged with capital murder under two different statutes in connection with the October 9 killing of Dean Meyers in Prince William County. One statute is a new Virginia state antiterrorism law that requires no proof of who pulled the trigger. But the law has never been used and is subject to a constitutional challenge. The other statute is allows for the death penalty in cases of multiple murders. Typically, only the triggerman has been eligible for the death penalty under this statute. Malvo is being held at a Fairfax County, Virginia, jail on a capital murder charge in the October 14, 2002, shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin at a parking lot outside a Falls Church, Virginia, store. Both Muhammad and Malvo could face the death penalty if they are convicted. The series of shootings that almost paralyzed the Washington, D.C. area began October 2. Ten people were killed and four others wounded. The sniper shootings seemed to end October 24 at a highway rest area west of Frederick, Maryland, with the arrests of Muhammad and Malvo, found sleeping in a blue 1990 Chevy Caprice. But in the days after their arrests, shootings tied to the suspects began to add up, leading police to believe the killings started at least a month earlier. Police say forensic tests link a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle found in the Caprice to the majority of the victims. Authorities also found a laptop computer, a scope, a tripod, and a sniper platform in the car. The Fairfax County prosecutor who will try Malvo said the Jamaican citizen's fingerprints were the only ones found on the Bushmaster rifle. Muhammad is scheduled to stand trial in October for the shooting of Meyers. Malvo is awaiting trial next fall in neighboring Fairfax County for the killing of Franklin. • Malvo's attorneys are seeking the dismissal of statements their client made to police interrogators last November 7. During that session, police say Malvo signed a waiver to his Miranda rights, which guarantee the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer, with an "X." Authorities say he may have feared that his signature could be used against him as a handwriting sample. Malvo's lawyers argue that he made clear to police that he did not want to talk about the shootings without lawyers present. • A judge has ruled that prosecutors will not necessarily have to prove that sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad fired the shot that killed a Maryland man for Muhammad to get the death penalty under a key Virginia law. Prince William County Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. also ruled that prosecutors do not have to disclose to defense attorneys their theory about whether Muhammad or Malvo fired the shot. • Nearly a year-and-a-half before the sniper attacks began, Muhammad forged documents to take the youth who would become his alleged accomplice from Antigua into the United States, according to a task force report on the shootings undertaken for the attorney general of Antigua and Barbuda. The report said that immigration records show Muhammad used the name of his own son, Linburg Williams, to take Jamaican-born John Lee Malvo with him to the United States in May 2001. Did Lee Boyd Malvo invoke his right to legal counsel during a November 2002 police interrogation? What lessons were learned about conducting such a massive investigation over so many states? Will it be possible that an impartial jury can be found? Charles A. Moose: The Montgomery County, Maryland, police chief. Moose spent six years as the first black police chief in Portland, Oregon, before coming to Montgomery County. He holds a doctorate in urban studies from Portland State University. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan hired Moose in 1999 for what he termed the chief's steady leadership skills. John Allen Muhammad: Arrested in connection with the sniper shootings. Muhammad also is known as John Allen Williams. He is a twice-divorced, 41-year-old Gulf War veteran who converted to Islam 17 years ago. Muhammad enlisted in the Army in November 1985 and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in April 1994. He qualified as an expert with the M-16, the Army's standard infantry rifle. He was trained as a mechanic, truck driver and as a specialist metal worker. Lee Boyd Malvo): Arrested in connection to the sniper shootings. Malvo, 17, was born in Jamaica and came to the United States when he was 4. Authorities say he was in the United States illegally. He lived in a homeless shelter while he attended high school in Bellingham, Washington. Was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service last year and had a deportation hearing scheduled for November 20.
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