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 Malvo likely won't be part of campaign to end juvenile death penalty
From Brad Wright
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The country's most famous juvenile defendant facing the death penalty is not likely to figure in a renewed grass-roots effort to end capital punishment for juveniles, according to the head of an advocacy group. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty plans to work through state legislatures to abolish the death penalty for offenders under age 18 in the 22 states where it is still allowed, said Steven Hawkins, executive director of the group. To do that requires a time frame that would not take in the trial of John Lee Malvo, a juvenile defendant in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper case, he said. "The reality is, of course, that by the time the Malvo case is tried, the state legislative sessions around the country will have ended, you know, by June of 2003," Hawkins said. "So, it could very well be that in many ways, his case in the overall picture will be irrelevant. The Supreme Court could likely take up the larger question of whether juveniles should be executed and with that Malvo's case really would be irrelevant." Malvo and adult defendant John Allen Muhammad are facing capital murder trials in Virginia because that state's laws provide an easier path to execution -- if a conviction is secured -- than do those in Maryland and the District of Columbia, where other sniper murders occurred. Malvo is awaiting a preliminary hearing in juvenile court next week, but his case is widely expected to be moved to circuit court for trial later this year or 2004. The NCADP campaign kickoff was intended to coincide with Wednesday's scheduled execution of Ron Chris Foster, who was 17 when he shot a convenience store clerk to death in Mississippi in 1989. But on Monday, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove granted a temporary reprieve for Foster, citing concerns about his age and mental competency at the time of crime. According to NCADP, 224 death sentences have been imposed on juveniles since 1976 but only 21 have been carried out. Texas has executed 13, while the eight others were executed in Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Hawkins believes momentum is building to ban juvenile executions. He said there is legislation for the ban pending in 11 of the 22 states where the juvenile death penalty is now allowed.
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