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CNN Live At Daybreak

Trial for Sniper Suspect Lee Malvo Enters Fifth Week Today

Aired December 08, 2003 - 05:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The trial for sniper suspect Lee Malvo enters its fifth week today. Defense attorneys are to lay more groundwork for their insanity defense.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve is covering the trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a battery of mental health experts, Malvo's defense is building the backbone of its case, trying to convince the jury that the teenager was insane at the time of the sniper murders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Malvo is not successful on the insanity defense in the guilt phase, his lawyers have, in a genius way, laid out early his penalty phase case, which is extremely important.

MESERVE: The defense is spending much of its time on John Muhammad. His son Lindbergh testified that Muhammad was manipulative. One of Muhammad's superiors in the Army said he felt Muhammad was dangerous and angry about a white system that Muhammad perceived as treating him poorly.

Muhammad's first wife said Malvo wrote a letter to her niece just a few months before the sniper slayings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a cry for help. I know it was.

LARRY KING, HOST: He was asking for what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was asking for, to just not be in the situation that he was in.

MESERVE: In a blow to the defense, the letter was kept out of evidence.

Violent jailhouse drawings by Malvo were admitted into evidence and a forensics social worker testified that when she first met Malvo he was obsessed with racial inequities, had dropped his Jamaican accent and insisted that Muhammad was his father.

(on camera): This week, the defense promises witnesses who will say Lee Malvo was so indoctrinated by John Muhammad, he was legally insane at the time of the sniper slayings.

Jean Meserve, CNN, Chesapeake, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Today>


Aired December 8, 2003 - 05:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The trial for sniper suspect Lee Malvo enters its fifth week today. Defense attorneys are to lay more groundwork for their insanity defense.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve is covering the trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a battery of mental health experts, Malvo's defense is building the backbone of its case, trying to convince the jury that the teenager was insane at the time of the sniper murders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Malvo is not successful on the insanity defense in the guilt phase, his lawyers have, in a genius way, laid out early his penalty phase case, which is extremely important.

MESERVE: The defense is spending much of its time on John Muhammad. His son Lindbergh testified that Muhammad was manipulative. One of Muhammad's superiors in the Army said he felt Muhammad was dangerous and angry about a white system that Muhammad perceived as treating him poorly.

Muhammad's first wife said Malvo wrote a letter to her niece just a few months before the sniper slayings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a cry for help. I know it was.

LARRY KING, HOST: He was asking for what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was asking for, to just not be in the situation that he was in.

MESERVE: In a blow to the defense, the letter was kept out of evidence.

Violent jailhouse drawings by Malvo were admitted into evidence and a forensics social worker testified that when she first met Malvo he was obsessed with racial inequities, had dropped his Jamaican accent and insisted that Muhammad was his father.

(on camera): This week, the defense promises witnesses who will say Lee Malvo was so indoctrinated by John Muhammad, he was legally insane at the time of the sniper slayings.

Jean Meserve, CNN, Chesapeake, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Today>