Teenaged sniper escapes death penalty
Teenaged sniper Lee Malvo has been spared death by execution.
But the 18-year-old American ought to be locked up for life without parole, a jury has said, after taking eight-and-a-half hours over two days to finish deliberations.
Mr Malvo was convicted of murder last week in the killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin.
Ms Franklin was one of 10 people murdered during a three-week shooting spree in the Washington area in October 2002.
Accomplice John Allen Muhammad is facing the death penalty after a Virginia jury last month recommended he should die for the attacks.
It is thought Mr Malvo could be tried again for other killings with the death penalty again an option.
Mr Malvo’s lawyers insisted the teenager was an impressionable boy who had fallen under Muhammad’s spell.
