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CNN Saturday Morning News
Jurisdictions Fight Over Right to Prosecute Sniper Suspects
Aired October 26, 2002 - 07:12 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: Now that the D.C.-area sniper suspects are behind bars and charged with murder in Montgomery County, Maryland, a big legal question remains unanswered. Which of the seven jurisdictions where the snipers struck will prosecute the case first?
CNN's Carol Lin joins us live from Montgomery County, Maryland. And I guess, Carol, the fight has already begun.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You bet, Carol. We've been talking about the jockeying for position as seven different jurisdictions over two states and the District of Columbia have been duking it out to try to actually have the chance to try the first pivotal case.
Yesterday, there was a big meeting amongst the states' attorneys amongst these seven jurisdictions. And even before that meeting was over, Maryland's state's attorney walked out to the microphones, stood before the cameras, and announced that the state of Maryland will be filing first degree murder charges against John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. Both would be tried as an adult.
There are now questions as to the whether the 17-year-old John Lee Malvo is in fact a juvenile. He may be older than what is indicated right now.
Doug Gansler making this announcement despite a specific request by the Justice Department not to make such a public announcement. Well, the Justice Department reaction was pretty swift. On senior government official telling CNN, quote, "Unfortunately, he is trying to exploit tragedy for political gain."
The Justice Department indicating no decision has been made yet by any of these jurisdictions as to who will actually try the cases first. So just because Maryland has announced that it is filing these charges does not mean that this will be the first trial to go forward.
And the federal government is also reserving the possibility that they may try this as a federal case. They may at least reserve the right to do so. Remember, possession is nine-tenths of the law. These two men are facing federal charges right now unrelated directly to the sniper case. John Muhammad facing a weapons charge, John Lee Malvo a possible material witness in the sniper investigation.
Further charge -- but now that Maryland has filed these charges, it may complicate the picture as to who will get first dibs, and the question could come down to, who has the best evidence and the best chance for a successful prosecution? I.e., who has the best chance of getting the death penalty, Carol?
COSTELLO: This fight is going to go on a long time.
Wanted to ask you about something you said that piqued my interest, this Malvo might be 18 or 19?
LIN: Yes, I mean, he's a Jamaican citizen, according to federal officials, but they are still trying to track down his birth records. So though right now he's been reported as being 17 years old, officials are now saying he could be older, he could be an adult. And that may make it a little bit easier, therefore, to try him as an adult in the state of Maryland.
COSTELLO: And something...
LIN: But there already has been precedent for trying juveniles as adults, depending on the seriousness of the crime.
COSTELLO: Exactly. And something else that Malvo is accused of doing is writing one of these letters that came in to the sniper task force. And CNN has managed to get ahold of one of the letters. This letter was found in Ashland, Virginia. Can you tell us more about it?
LIN: That's right, CNN has been able to obtain this letter. This letter was a critical letter that helped investigators tremendously in tracking down these suspects, primarily because it was so detailed. It was a letter found outside the Ponderosa restaurant. This was where a 37-year-old man was critically wounded. It was found sealed in a plastic bag or in some form of plastic, and it was tacked to a tree outside of the restaurant.
Very detailed, with threats, with complaints about unsuccessful attempts at trying to reach different authorities.
I want to read a portion of the letter to you, Carol. We have it quoted here. "We have tried to contact you to start negotiation." These are the words of the sniper. "These people took of call for a Hoax or Joke, so your failure to respond has cost you five lives. If stopping the killing is more important than catching us now, then you will accept our demand which are nonnegotiable. Try to catch us, withdrawing at least you will have less body bags. But if trying to catch us now more important than prepare you body bags. If we give you our word, that is what takes place. `Word is Bond.'"
Broken English, but in very clear script there, script which investigators are now beginning to link with handwriting samples of young John Lee Malvo from Bellingham High School in Washington State.
In the meantime, he details six specific calls that he made to authorities, unsuccessful attempts to reach the police. And he also said that he made an attempt, he listed a number, which he made an attempt to our Washington bureau. Well, according to a CNN spokesperson, and I'm quoting here from our company, "To our knowledge, no one at CNN received such a call," Carol.
But very interesting that more details are coming out in this letter, and we're going to have more of these details for you throughout the morning.
COSTELLO: Yes, fascinating. Scary and fascinating at the same time. Carol Lin, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Suspects>
Aired October 26, 2002 - 07:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now that the D.C.-area sniper suspects are behind bars and charged with murder in Montgomery County, Maryland, a big legal question remains unanswered. Which of the seven jurisdictions where the snipers struck will prosecute the case first?
CNN's Carol Lin joins us live from Montgomery County, Maryland. And I guess, Carol, the fight has already begun.
CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You bet, Carol. We've been talking about the jockeying for position as seven different jurisdictions over two states and the District of Columbia have been duking it out to try to actually have the chance to try the first pivotal case.
Yesterday, there was a big meeting amongst the states' attorneys amongst these seven jurisdictions. And even before that meeting was over, Maryland's state's attorney walked out to the microphones, stood before the cameras, and announced that the state of Maryland will be filing first degree murder charges against John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. Both would be tried as an adult.
There are now questions as to the whether the 17-year-old John Lee Malvo is in fact a juvenile. He may be older than what is indicated right now.
Doug Gansler making this announcement despite a specific request by the Justice Department not to make such a public announcement. Well, the Justice Department reaction was pretty swift. On senior government official telling CNN, quote, "Unfortunately, he is trying to exploit tragedy for political gain."
The Justice Department indicating no decision has been made yet by any of these jurisdictions as to who will actually try the cases first. So just because Maryland has announced that it is filing these charges does not mean that this will be the first trial to go forward.
And the federal government is also reserving the possibility that they may try this as a federal case. They may at least reserve the right to do so. Remember, possession is nine-tenths of the law. These two men are facing federal charges right now unrelated directly to the sniper case. John Muhammad facing a weapons charge, John Lee Malvo a possible material witness in the sniper investigation.
Further charge -- but now that Maryland has filed these charges, it may complicate the picture as to who will get first dibs, and the question could come down to, who has the best evidence and the best chance for a successful prosecution? I.e., who has the best chance of getting the death penalty, Carol?
COSTELLO: This fight is going to go on a long time.
Wanted to ask you about something you said that piqued my interest, this Malvo might be 18 or 19?
LIN: Yes, I mean, he's a Jamaican citizen, according to federal officials, but they are still trying to track down his birth records. So though right now he's been reported as being 17 years old, officials are now saying he could be older, he could be an adult. And that may make it a little bit easier, therefore, to try him as an adult in the state of Maryland.
COSTELLO: And something...
LIN: But there already has been precedent for trying juveniles as adults, depending on the seriousness of the crime.
COSTELLO: Exactly. And something else that Malvo is accused of doing is writing one of these letters that came in to the sniper task force. And CNN has managed to get ahold of one of the letters. This letter was found in Ashland, Virginia. Can you tell us more about it?
LIN: That's right, CNN has been able to obtain this letter. This letter was a critical letter that helped investigators tremendously in tracking down these suspects, primarily because it was so detailed. It was a letter found outside the Ponderosa restaurant. This was where a 37-year-old man was critically wounded. It was found sealed in a plastic bag or in some form of plastic, and it was tacked to a tree outside of the restaurant.
Very detailed, with threats, with complaints about unsuccessful attempts at trying to reach different authorities.
I want to read a portion of the letter to you, Carol. We have it quoted here. "We have tried to contact you to start negotiation." These are the words of the sniper. "These people took of call for a Hoax or Joke, so your failure to respond has cost you five lives. If stopping the killing is more important than catching us now, then you will accept our demand which are nonnegotiable. Try to catch us, withdrawing at least you will have less body bags. But if trying to catch us now more important than prepare you body bags. If we give you our word, that is what takes place. `Word is Bond.'"
Broken English, but in very clear script there, script which investigators are now beginning to link with handwriting samples of young John Lee Malvo from Bellingham High School in Washington State.
In the meantime, he details six specific calls that he made to authorities, unsuccessful attempts to reach the police. And he also said that he made an attempt, he listed a number, which he made an attempt to our Washington bureau. Well, according to a CNN spokesperson, and I'm quoting here from our company, "To our knowledge, no one at CNN received such a call," Carol.
But very interesting that more details are coming out in this letter, and we're going to have more of these details for you throughout the morning.
COSTELLO: Yes, fascinating. Scary and fascinating at the same time. Carol Lin, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Suspects>
