Life-Without-Parole Sentences For D.C. Sniper Thrown Out By Judge

By Barbara Campbell

Published May 26, 2017 at 9:08 PM EDT

Lee Boyd Malvo attends court proceedings for fellow sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad in 2003. A federal judge has thrown out two sentences of life without parole that Malvo has been serving in Virginia.

A federal judge has thrown out two life sentences being served by Lee Boyd Malvo, one of two people convicted in the Washington, D.C., sniper killings of 2002.

Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk, Va., ruled Friday that because the Supreme Court has found it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without parole, Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings.

Malvo was 17 when he was arrested, along with John Allen Muhammad, after a series of mysterious and terrifying shootings in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland that killed 10 people and wounded three.

While the public fearfully watched for what was reported to be a white panel van carrying the 2002 D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo conducted their killing spree from a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with a hole cut into the trunk to shoot through.

Malvo said he met Muhammad in Antigua and took to the road with him. In an interview with The Washington Post in 2012 in a Virginia prison, Malvo said Muhammad "picked me because he knew he could mold me. ... He knew I could be what he needed me to be. ... He could not have chosen a better child.

As they traveled, Muhammad and Malvo carried out a series of murders across the country, beginning in Washington state. Investigators later said Muhammad intended to kill his ex-wife, who lived in the Washington area. Muhammad was executed in Virginia in 2009.