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American Morning
Virginia Prosecutors Will Press Case For trying Malvo as Adult
Aired January 14, 2003 - 08:02 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the latest in the D.C. area sniper case. In a court hearing starting today, Virginia prosecutors will press their case for trying 17-year-old John Lee Malvo as an adult in connection at least with one of the killings. If that happens, he would face the death penalty if convicted. Malvo and John Muhammad are both accused in a series of shootings.
Let's turn to Patty Davis, who joins us from Fairfax, Virginia to give us a little preview of what might happen later on this morning -- good morning, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
It was three months ago today that FBI analyst Linda Franklin was shot once in the head and killed outside a Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia. Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo is charged with Franklin's murder.
Now, at a preliminary hearing today, a judge will decide whether or not Malvo should be tried as an adult in that killing. Also, prosecutors must show probable cause that Franklin or that Malvo was involved in Franklin's murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT HORAN, JR., PROSECUTOR: Probable cause is a totally different standard than the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. Probable cause means that's it, is it probable a crime was committed? Is it probable, number two, the defendant committed it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIS: We expect to hear the most evidence from prosecutors to date. It's only been out there, what's been reported in the newspapers and here on CNN, tidbits here and there. But we will hear some real evidence today as to what prosecutors are going to go forward with. They're expected to call, over the next two days, some 20 witnesses. John Lee Malvo expected at this hearing today in his green jumpsuit, his orange coat, as he has been at almost every hearing. He arrives in shackles under heavy, heavy guard, police sirens blaring.
Also, Linda Franklin's husband has been at almost every single one of these hearings that have taken place. Last time, the last couple times sitting in the front row, watching intently. It must be very difficult for him -- Paula.
ZAHN: Has he spoken with any reporters?
DAVIS: No. In fact, he hasn't. We've tried on occasion to get him to talk to us and no. He's keeping to himself -- Paula.
ZAHN: I understand that.
Patty Davis, thanks so much for the update.
So let's talk about some of those challenges facing Virginia prosecutors in "The People vote. (ph) John Lee Malvo" case.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is way far away from home this morning. He joins us from the D.C. bureau.
OK, Jeffrey, you heard Patty say what the prosecution want to charge John Lee Malvo with. What are the chances that he will be tried as an adult?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I would say those chances are approximately a hundred percent. I mean there is no way the prosecution is going to lose this hearing. All they have to prove is there's probable cause that Malvo committed these crimes. That's a very low standard. In general, prosecutors almost never lose these hearings and in a high profile cases like this, it ain't never going to happen that they lose.
ZAHN: Now, Patty said over the next couple days we'll probably see a parade of some 20 witnesses or so and we'll probably get our first exposure to key evidence in the specific case of Linda Franklin. What do you think the prosecution will lay out?
TOOBIN: Mostly the evidence will be ballistics, will be evidence about what bullet was used to kill Linda Franklin and how the bullet was recovered and how that bullet matches the gun that was found with Malvo and Muhammad.
The interesting question, the difficult question in this case, that certainly won't be resolved in these next two days, but will at least have a hint about it, is how the prosecution will prove who actually fired, whether it was Malvo or Muhammad.
ZAHN: How will they do that?
TOOBIN: Well, that's going to be interesting. I mean there will be potentially fingerprint evidence on the gun itself. There have been reports that Malvo's fingerprints are on the gun. Malvo, his handwriting may have been the one who left the notes. There have been reports that his DNA is on grape stems near the shooting site in some of the murders.
But it's tricky, it's difficult and that, it certainly won't be a hurdle difficult for the prosecution to get over in this hearing because the standard is so low. But when it comes to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the real challenge here is going to be showing who was the shooter. ZAHN: Jeffrey, let's quickly talk about the defense. They had one minor victory last week when I guess they got the prosecution to turn over statements that may have been made to police about two of the shootings. What do you know about that?
TOOBIN: Well, this was in this strange period, if you recall, Paula, when Malvo was transferred from federal to state custody. During that window when he was in between control, in between the two jurisdictions, he was interviewed again and apparently made a number of statements. The defense got permission to see what he said. What Prosecutor Horan said is that he's not going to use those statements at this hearing. So we won't know what he said.
But at least I think it -- and I think it's fair that the prosecutor has turned over and let the defense see what Malvo had to say.
ZAHN: Very quickly here, the American public's perception is that there's overwhelming evidence against these two guys. What are these defense attorneys up against?
TOOBIN: This is a huge, huge burden. I mean, you know, you -- the pretrial publicity in this case is some of the most I've ever seen, and that includes cases like O.J. I mean this is an enormous, enormous amount of publicity. Also, remember, you can't even have a change of venue very far, because Virginia and Maryland are small states. There's nowhere you can go where there was less publicity. And also, you know, there have been no other suspects. And perhaps the most important piece of evidence is something that you can't even put in court, which is everyone knows that when these two were arrested, the sniper shootings stopped.
So it's an enormous burden for the defense attorneys and frankly I don't know what they're going to do.
ZAHN: Jeffrey Toobin, good to see you.
TOOBIN: Good to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: Come home one of these days so we can see you in person.
TOOBIN: I will. Good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Adult>
Aired January 14, 2003 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the latest in the D.C. area sniper case. In a court hearing starting today, Virginia prosecutors will press their case for trying 17-year-old John Lee Malvo as an adult in connection at least with one of the killings. If that happens, he would face the death penalty if convicted. Malvo and John Muhammad are both accused in a series of shootings.
Let's turn to Patty Davis, who joins us from Fairfax, Virginia to give us a little preview of what might happen later on this morning -- good morning, Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
It was three months ago today that FBI analyst Linda Franklin was shot once in the head and killed outside a Home Depot in Falls Church, Virginia. Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo is charged with Franklin's murder.
Now, at a preliminary hearing today, a judge will decide whether or not Malvo should be tried as an adult in that killing. Also, prosecutors must show probable cause that Franklin or that Malvo was involved in Franklin's murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT HORAN, JR., PROSECUTOR: Probable cause is a totally different standard than the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. Probable cause means that's it, is it probable a crime was committed? Is it probable, number two, the defendant committed it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIS: We expect to hear the most evidence from prosecutors to date. It's only been out there, what's been reported in the newspapers and here on CNN, tidbits here and there. But we will hear some real evidence today as to what prosecutors are going to go forward with. They're expected to call, over the next two days, some 20 witnesses. John Lee Malvo expected at this hearing today in his green jumpsuit, his orange coat, as he has been at almost every hearing. He arrives in shackles under heavy, heavy guard, police sirens blaring.
Also, Linda Franklin's husband has been at almost every single one of these hearings that have taken place. Last time, the last couple times sitting in the front row, watching intently. It must be very difficult for him -- Paula.
ZAHN: Has he spoken with any reporters?
DAVIS: No. In fact, he hasn't. We've tried on occasion to get him to talk to us and no. He's keeping to himself -- Paula.
ZAHN: I understand that.
Patty Davis, thanks so much for the update.
So let's talk about some of those challenges facing Virginia prosecutors in "The People vote. (ph) John Lee Malvo" case.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is way far away from home this morning. He joins us from the D.C. bureau.
OK, Jeffrey, you heard Patty say what the prosecution want to charge John Lee Malvo with. What are the chances that he will be tried as an adult?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I would say those chances are approximately a hundred percent. I mean there is no way the prosecution is going to lose this hearing. All they have to prove is there's probable cause that Malvo committed these crimes. That's a very low standard. In general, prosecutors almost never lose these hearings and in a high profile cases like this, it ain't never going to happen that they lose.
ZAHN: Now, Patty said over the next couple days we'll probably see a parade of some 20 witnesses or so and we'll probably get our first exposure to key evidence in the specific case of Linda Franklin. What do you think the prosecution will lay out?
TOOBIN: Mostly the evidence will be ballistics, will be evidence about what bullet was used to kill Linda Franklin and how the bullet was recovered and how that bullet matches the gun that was found with Malvo and Muhammad.
The interesting question, the difficult question in this case, that certainly won't be resolved in these next two days, but will at least have a hint about it, is how the prosecution will prove who actually fired, whether it was Malvo or Muhammad.
ZAHN: How will they do that?
TOOBIN: Well, that's going to be interesting. I mean there will be potentially fingerprint evidence on the gun itself. There have been reports that Malvo's fingerprints are on the gun. Malvo, his handwriting may have been the one who left the notes. There have been reports that his DNA is on grape stems near the shooting site in some of the murders.
But it's tricky, it's difficult and that, it certainly won't be a hurdle difficult for the prosecution to get over in this hearing because the standard is so low. But when it comes to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the real challenge here is going to be showing who was the shooter. ZAHN: Jeffrey, let's quickly talk about the defense. They had one minor victory last week when I guess they got the prosecution to turn over statements that may have been made to police about two of the shootings. What do you know about that?
TOOBIN: Well, this was in this strange period, if you recall, Paula, when Malvo was transferred from federal to state custody. During that window when he was in between control, in between the two jurisdictions, he was interviewed again and apparently made a number of statements. The defense got permission to see what he said. What Prosecutor Horan said is that he's not going to use those statements at this hearing. So we won't know what he said.
But at least I think it -- and I think it's fair that the prosecutor has turned over and let the defense see what Malvo had to say.
ZAHN: Very quickly here, the American public's perception is that there's overwhelming evidence against these two guys. What are these defense attorneys up against?
TOOBIN: This is a huge, huge burden. I mean, you know, you -- the pretrial publicity in this case is some of the most I've ever seen, and that includes cases like O.J. I mean this is an enormous, enormous amount of publicity. Also, remember, you can't even have a change of venue very far, because Virginia and Maryland are small states. There's nowhere you can go where there was less publicity. And also, you know, there have been no other suspects. And perhaps the most important piece of evidence is something that you can't even put in court, which is everyone knows that when these two were arrested, the sniper shootings stopped.
So it's an enormous burden for the defense attorneys and frankly I don't know what they're going to do.
ZAHN: Jeffrey Toobin, good to see you.
TOOBIN: Good to see you, Paula.
ZAHN: Come home one of these days so we can see you in person.
TOOBIN: I will. Good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Adult>
