On Friday Maryland’s highest court granted Jamaican Lee Boyd Malvo, the now 37-year-old convicted D.C. sniper, a new sentencing hearing. In 2006, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge sentenced Malvo, who pleaded guilty, to six life sentences without the possibility of parole for his role in the killing of six people.
In a 4-3 ruling filed Friday, the Maryland Court of Appeals determined Malvo was due a new sentencing hearing, citing the 2012 Supreme Court case Miller v. Alabama, which says life sentences without the possibility of parole for juveniles violate the Eighth Amendment.
Malvo was 17 years old when he and John Allen Muhammad 41-years-old, began a killing spree in DC, Maryland and Virginia for a three week period in October 2002 before they were arrested later that month at a Maryland rest stop.
Muhammad was executed in 2009 for his role in the shootings.