Virginia Gov. Mark Warner will postpone his decision on whether to allow other states or localities to try the Washington-area snipers until one of them is due back in court for sentencing.
Mr. Warner had said he would make his decision around the time John Allen Muhammad was going to be sentenced on Feb. 12. But Muhammad’s attorneys have asked a judge to delay the hearing until March or April.
Muhammad’s accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who was convicted last month in his role for one of the shootings, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10.
Muhammad will appear in Prince William Circuit Court today for the first time since a Virginia Beach jury on Nov. 24 recommended that he be sentenced to death for his role in one of the 13 shootings that killed 10 and wounded three in the Washington area in fall 2002.
Muhammad’s defense attorneys have asked Prince William Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. to postpone the Feb. 12 sentencing because defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro will be out of the country then. They asked the judge to schedule the hearing in March or April.
Mr. Shapiro and Peter D. Greenspun also will ask Judge Millette to schedule a post-trial motions hearing.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Millette either will approve the jury’s sentence or reduce it to life in prison. He is expected to follow the jury’s recommendation and hand down a death sentence.
The postponement of Muhammad’s sentencing hearing also could affect the governor’s decision on whether to allow other states to try Malvo.
Several jurisdictions, including Montgomery, Ala.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Montgomery County, Md., have said they want to try Muhammad, 43, and Malvo, 18. Prosecutors in the local cases have said they want to flip the cases so that Muhammad can stand trial in Fairfax, while Malvo can stand trial in Prince William.
Muhammad was convicted Nov. 17 on two counts of capital murder for the Oct. 9, 2002, fatal shooting of Harold Dean Meyers, 53, at a Manassas gas station.
Malvo was convicted Dec. 18 on two counts of capital murder for the Oct. 14, 2002, fatal shooting of Linda Franklin, 47, at a Falls Church Home Depot. A Chesapeake jury on Dec. 23 recommended that Malvo serve life in prison.
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