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American Morning

Sniper Suspects

Aired November 08, 2002 - 08:18   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why will the first trial be in Virginia, and why do they get the first trial, and where does this leave the other states who want to prosecute as well?
Joining us to tackle those issues, our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

Jeff -- good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KAGAN: First of all, I'm not too surprised that Virginia that gets the first try at this.

TOOBIN: You know, the priority in this Justice Department from the beginning has been the death penalty. John Ashcroft used some interesting sort of euphemism there, the best range of available penalties. That means the death penalty. Virginia is by far the more likely than Maryland to give it.

KAGAN: And speaking of Maryland, there was a key player not at the news conference yesterday: Doug Gansler.

TOOBIN: It was almost funny. I mean, I was -- we were broadcasting it live with Judy Woodruff, and I saw John Ashcroft, you know, introducing everybody, and he got to Douglas Duncan, who is the county executive of Montgomery County, and then there was sort of the obvious omission of the prosecutor there, who wasn't present, wasn't invited.

KAGAN: Who was the first to file charges.

TOOBIN: The first to file, and then also keep in mind, six people died in Montgomery County, no more than one anywhere else. But John Ashcroft has made the death penalty a priority in this and lots of other cases. That's why Maryland is off the list.

KAGAN: I want to ask about some other decisions. They're going to try these two men separately.

TOOBIN: Interesting question. I mean, usually prosecutors like to try people together. The idea is to sort of put all of the incriminating evidence in there, and it's harder to point the finger at someone else when that person is sitting there in the courtroom.

By doing it separately, they do take the risk that at Muhammad's trial, Muhammad tries to pin it on Malvo; at Malvo's trial, they try to pin it on Muhammad. But they apparently have evidence -- and we don't know this yet -- that ties these individuals to these specific crimes -- that the Prince William County was done by Muhammad...

KAGAN: Muhammad.

TOOBIN: ... and Fairfax by Malvo.

But we don't know what that evidence is yet, and that could be very important.

KAGAN: Yes, I was going to say, it's not just separately, but in two completely different shootings.

TOOBIN: Completely different shootings, and you know, they are really committing themselves in this theory to proving that these individuals are the trigger men in these cases. And we don't know, and we haven't seen that evidence yet.

KAGAN: Well, and Bill and I were talking about this earlier, as much evidence continues to stack up, one thing they don't have, unless they can get one to testify against the other, they don't have an eyewitness with any of these shootings who saw either of these men pull the trigger.

TOOBIN: One of the things that confuses me is, how they're going to do that. I don't see how that's done. I mean, this computer may have some evidence to that effect, if you know, that story pans out. But that obviously is going to be a big mystery that prosecutors hope to solve at the trial.

KAGAN: Explain to me a little bit more this anti-terrorism law in Virginia, which is another reason that the Justice Department wanted to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TOOBIN: Well, apparently, this is a very new law, so some of this is murky. But what it should do is, according to prosecutors, is let one of them be sentenced to death even if they're not proved to be the trigger man.

Also, it allows them to introduce evidence of all the crime spree in an individual murder case to show that the case was -- that this murder was part of a pattern.

KAGAN: And just real quickly, you hear of public defenders. You also hear of death penalty opponents saying this whole thing is being railroaded. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, in high-profile cases, that complaint is often made. Sometimes it's justification. But look for the first thing the defense tries to do when this case gets before a court, is look for a long, long delay to try to let some of the passions cool.

KAGAN: We will be looking for it with your help. Thank you so much.

TOOBIN: I'll be here. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired November 8, 2002 - 08:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why will the first trial be in Virginia, and why do they get the first trial, and where does this leave the other states who want to prosecute as well?
Joining us to tackle those issues, our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

Jeff -- good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KAGAN: First of all, I'm not too surprised that Virginia that gets the first try at this.

TOOBIN: You know, the priority in this Justice Department from the beginning has been the death penalty. John Ashcroft used some interesting sort of euphemism there, the best range of available penalties. That means the death penalty. Virginia is by far the more likely than Maryland to give it.

KAGAN: And speaking of Maryland, there was a key player not at the news conference yesterday: Doug Gansler.

TOOBIN: It was almost funny. I mean, I was -- we were broadcasting it live with Judy Woodruff, and I saw John Ashcroft, you know, introducing everybody, and he got to Douglas Duncan, who is the county executive of Montgomery County, and then there was sort of the obvious omission of the prosecutor there, who wasn't present, wasn't invited.

KAGAN: Who was the first to file charges.

TOOBIN: The first to file, and then also keep in mind, six people died in Montgomery County, no more than one anywhere else. But John Ashcroft has made the death penalty a priority in this and lots of other cases. That's why Maryland is off the list.

KAGAN: I want to ask about some other decisions. They're going to try these two men separately.

TOOBIN: Interesting question. I mean, usually prosecutors like to try people together. The idea is to sort of put all of the incriminating evidence in there, and it's harder to point the finger at someone else when that person is sitting there in the courtroom.

By doing it separately, they do take the risk that at Muhammad's trial, Muhammad tries to pin it on Malvo; at Malvo's trial, they try to pin it on Muhammad. But they apparently have evidence -- and we don't know this yet -- that ties these individuals to these specific crimes -- that the Prince William County was done by Muhammad...

KAGAN: Muhammad.

TOOBIN: ... and Fairfax by Malvo.

But we don't know what that evidence is yet, and that could be very important.

KAGAN: Yes, I was going to say, it's not just separately, but in two completely different shootings.

TOOBIN: Completely different shootings, and you know, they are really committing themselves in this theory to proving that these individuals are the trigger men in these cases. And we don't know, and we haven't seen that evidence yet.

KAGAN: Well, and Bill and I were talking about this earlier, as much evidence continues to stack up, one thing they don't have, unless they can get one to testify against the other, they don't have an eyewitness with any of these shootings who saw either of these men pull the trigger.

TOOBIN: One of the things that confuses me is, how they're going to do that. I don't see how that's done. I mean, this computer may have some evidence to that effect, if you know, that story pans out. But that obviously is going to be a big mystery that prosecutors hope to solve at the trial.

KAGAN: Explain to me a little bit more this anti-terrorism law in Virginia, which is another reason that the Justice Department wanted to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TOOBIN: Well, apparently, this is a very new law, so some of this is murky. But what it should do is, according to prosecutors, is let one of them be sentenced to death even if they're not proved to be the trigger man.

Also, it allows them to introduce evidence of all the crime spree in an individual murder case to show that the case was -- that this murder was part of a pattern.

KAGAN: And just real quickly, you hear of public defenders. You also hear of death penalty opponents saying this whole thing is being railroaded. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, in high-profile cases, that complaint is often made. Sometimes it's justification. But look for the first thing the defense tries to do when this case gets before a court, is look for a long, long delay to try to let some of the passions cool.

KAGAN: We will be looking for it with your help. Thank you so much.

TOOBIN: I'll be here. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.