Lawyers Cite Bad Childhood in Convicted Sniper's Appeal
Lawyers for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad have filed a habeas appeal seeking to overturn his death sentence because jurors were not told of his abuse as a child or his brain damage.
Muhammad received a death sentence for the slaying of Dean Meyers in a trial in Prince William County, Va., the Washington Post reports. He was arrested with Lee Boyd Malvo in a car at a highway rest stop in 2002. A gun found in the trunk was linked to nine of 10 sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area.
Muhammad was convicted of six killings in Maryland but was not sentenced to death there. He was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison in a separate Virginia trial.
Muhammad refused to be examined by a prosecution expert, which led the judge to bar a defense expert from testifying about Muhammad’s abusive upbringing, his appellate lawyers say in papers filed in Alexandria federal court. The judge also refused to admit Muhammad’s brain scans purporting to show abnormalities linked to mental illness and behavior problems.
Muhammad’s mother died when he was 3. The court filing says aunts who took in Muhammad and his siblings whipped the children, left them home alone without food, and did not give them Christmas or birthday presents, the Post story says.
The lawyers also claim prosecutors failed to turn over important documents for the Prince William County trial.
