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American Morning
Sniper Trials, Awaiting the Jury
Aired November 17, 2003 - 07:15 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: Less than two hours from now, a jury is scheduled to resume deliberations in the trial of sniper suspect John Muhammad. For more on the Muhammad case and the trial of his alleged accomplice, Lee Malvo, Jeanne Meserve is live for us in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Jeanne -- good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Guilty or innocent: that's the question facing the seven women and five men on John Muhammad's jury. They are considering four counts against him, two of which could carry the death penalty.
Now, they did deliberate for four hours on Friday without reaching a verdict. They did, however, have a question. They wanted a tape recorder to play a 911 tape. The right format machine couldn't be found for them immediately. A search was on over the weekend. Presumably they will get that this morning.
Also on Friday, presuming there could be a guilty verdict, Muhammad's lawyers made two motions for the judge to consider relative to the penalty phase of the trial. Those two will be considered this morning.
Now, down the road in the trial of Lee Malvo, the prosecution is expected to get under way presenting its case. It was delayed for one day. They were trying to accommodate the need to keep some of the evidence here for the Muhammad jury to look at. They're going to get around that, perhaps by using photographs of some of the key pieces of evidence in that trial.
Now, the principal shooting involved in the Malvo case is the murder of FBI analyst, Linda Franklin. But because of the nature of the charges against Lee Malvo, a number of other shootings will also be discussed as well. There is a lot of evidence to introduce, including sightings of Malvo at or near some of the shooting scenes, and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Key amongst that: his fingerprints on the Bushmaster rifle which has been linked with the sniper shootings.
Prosecutors in that case anticipate that it will take about five days for them to put on their case, in contrast to prosecutors here, who took 14.
Soledad -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us in Virginia Beach this morning. 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.
Aired November 17, 2003 - 07:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Less than two hours from now, a jury is scheduled to resume deliberations in the trial of sniper suspect John Muhammad. For more on the Muhammad case and the trial of his alleged accomplice, Lee Malvo, Jeanne Meserve is live for us in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Jeanne -- good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Guilty or innocent: that's the question facing the seven women and five men on John Muhammad's jury. They are considering four counts against him, two of which could carry the death penalty.
Now, they did deliberate for four hours on Friday without reaching a verdict. They did, however, have a question. They wanted a tape recorder to play a 911 tape. The right format machine couldn't be found for them immediately. A search was on over the weekend. Presumably they will get that this morning.
Also on Friday, presuming there could be a guilty verdict, Muhammad's lawyers made two motions for the judge to consider relative to the penalty phase of the trial. Those two will be considered this morning.
Now, down the road in the trial of Lee Malvo, the prosecution is expected to get under way presenting its case. It was delayed for one day. They were trying to accommodate the need to keep some of the evidence here for the Muhammad jury to look at. They're going to get around that, perhaps by using photographs of some of the key pieces of evidence in that trial.
Now, the principal shooting involved in the Malvo case is the murder of FBI analyst, Linda Franklin. But because of the nature of the charges against Lee Malvo, a number of other shootings will also be discussed as well. There is a lot of evidence to introduce, including sightings of Malvo at or near some of the shooting scenes, and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Key amongst that: his fingerprints on the Bushmaster rifle which has been linked with the sniper shootings.
Prosecutors in that case anticipate that it will take about five days for them to put on their case, in contrast to prosecutors here, who took 14.
Soledad -- back to you.
O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve for us in Virginia Beach this morning. 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.
