Judge throws out sniper’s sentences

NORFOLK, Va. — The life sentences that Lee Boyd Malvo received for his role in the sniper shootings that occurred in Virginia in 2002 were thrown out Friday by a federal judge because he was 17 at the time of the attacks.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles, and in 2016 the court decided that ruling should be applied retroactively. And so even though Malvo pleaded guilty in Spotsylvania County and agreed to serve two life sentences, in addition to being convicted by a jury and sentenced to two life sentences in Fairfax County, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson vacated the four sentences and ordered new hearings for Malvo.

Malvo, now 32, and John Allen Muhammad were both convicted of 10 murders in a three-week period in the Washington area, beginning with trials in Virginia in 2003. Muhammad was sentenced to death for the slaying in Prince William County of Dean Meyers, and he was executed in 2009.