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D.C. Area Sniper Defendants Will Be in Separate Courtrooms Today in Virginia
Aired November 10, 2003 - 08:19 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The two D.C. area sniper defendants will be in separate courtrooms today in Virginia. Prosecutors are ready to rest their case against John Muhammad, while just a few miles away Lee Boyd Malvo's murder trial is scheduled to begin in Chesapeake.
Jeanne Meserve joins us this morning from Virginia Beach -- Jeanne, what do we expect today?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the Lee Malvo case, he was transported yesterday down from Fairfax, Virginia to Chesapeake. He will appear in court this morning about 9:30 a.m. Eastern for his arraignment. Then there'll be a motions hearing. His attorneys want to have one of the charges against him dismissed. The judge will hear their arguments today. And then they'll launch into jury selection and predictions have been that that would take about a week.
But given all the local publicity about the Muhammad trial, it wouldn't surprise anybody if that went a little longer -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Each case obviously is about, involves, really, the same crimes. And yet the defense really going to be very different for each of these defendants, right?
MESERVE: It will be. In the Lee Boyd Malvo trial, his attorneys have said they're going to plead guilty by reason of insanity. That means that the whole structure of their case will be very different. They'll be talking a lot about his fatherless childhood, his itinerant upbringing and, more specifically, his relationship with John Muhammad.
It's going to be different for the prosecution, as well. In the Malvo case, the judge has ruled that Malvo's alleged confessions to detectives and to jail guards can be admitted and so the prosecution in that case is expected to be much more truncated than the prosecution we've seen here in Muhammad's trial.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning outside the courtroom, the courthouse, rather, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Jeanne, thanks.
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 in Virginia>
Aired November 10, 2003 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The two D.C. area sniper defendants will be in separate courtrooms today in Virginia. Prosecutors are ready to rest their case against John Muhammad, while just a few miles away Lee Boyd Malvo's murder trial is scheduled to begin in Chesapeake.
Jeanne Meserve joins us this morning from Virginia Beach -- Jeanne, what do we expect today?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the Lee Malvo case, he was transported yesterday down from Fairfax, Virginia to Chesapeake. He will appear in court this morning about 9:30 a.m. Eastern for his arraignment. Then there'll be a motions hearing. His attorneys want to have one of the charges against him dismissed. The judge will hear their arguments today. And then they'll launch into jury selection and predictions have been that that would take about a week.
But given all the local publicity about the Muhammad trial, it wouldn't surprise anybody if that went a little longer -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Each case obviously is about, involves, really, the same crimes. And yet the defense really going to be very different for each of these defendants, right?
MESERVE: It will be. In the Lee Boyd Malvo trial, his attorneys have said they're going to plead guilty by reason of insanity. That means that the whole structure of their case will be very different. They'll be talking a lot about his fatherless childhood, his itinerant upbringing and, more specifically, his relationship with John Muhammad.
It's going to be different for the prosecution, as well. In the Malvo case, the judge has ruled that Malvo's alleged confessions to detectives and to jail guards can be admitted and so the prosecution in that case is expected to be much more truncated than the prosecution we've seen here in Muhammad's trial.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning outside the courtroom, the courthouse, rather, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Jeanne, thanks.
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 in Virginia>
