Virginia sniper murder case is dismissed

By Tom Jackman
The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON — A capital-murder case against convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was dismissed yesterday after a Fairfax, Va., judge ruled that Muhammad's right to a speedy trial had been violated.

The ruling by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Langhorne Keith cannot be appealed because it does not involve a constitutional question. Rather, Keith cited a Virginia law that a defendant who is in jail must be brought to trial within five months.

The judge ruled that the five-month clock began ticking when Fairfax authorities sent a notice to the Prince William County, Va., jail in January seeking Muhammad's detention.

The ruling could lead to the end of murder charges in another Virginia county, Spotsylvania County. A Philadelphia man, Kenneth Bridges, was fatally shot there on Oct. 11, 2002.

The Fairfax dismissal does not affect Muhammad's first two murder convictions in Prince William County, where a jury sentenced him to death. His lawyers have launched an appeal in that case and expect to argue it to the Virginia Supreme Court next month.

Nor does the ruling affect murder charges pending against Muhammad in four other jurisdictions where sniper killings occurred in September and October 2002: Maryland, the District of Columbia, Alabama and Louisiana.

Thirteen people were shot, 10 fatally, in the Washington, D.C., area during a three-week span in October 2002. Three other people were shot, two fatally, in robbery-shootings in Montgomery, Ala., and Baton Rouge, La., in September 2002.

No decision had been made yesterday on whether to send Muhammad to another jurisdiction for prosecution.

Muhammad's attorneys, Peter Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, who had requested the dismissal, said yesterday that the ruling acts to preserve the rights of everyone no matter how minor or serious the charge or resources available to them.
 
Prosecutor Robert Horan said he would ask the judge to reconsider.

Muhammad, 43, was charged in connection with the Oct. 14, 2002, slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store.

His co-defendant, Lee Boyd Malvo, 19, has been convicted of Franklin's murder and has agreed to plead guilty to another slaying later this month. He received a life sentence.

Horan's response was reported by The Associated Press.