US: A year after a sniper rampage turned suburban malls and petrol stations into killing grounds, one of the men accused of hunting unseen for three weeks through Washington appeared in court yesterday to plead not guilty to murder, writes Suzanne Goldenberg in Virginia Beach, Virginia
On the opening day of the trial that could end in his death sentence, John Allen Muhammad (42), standing straight with the bearing of the soldier he used to be, told the judge that he was not guilty on murder, conspiracy and firearms charges.
Mr Muhammad and his alleged accomplice, John Lee Malvo, are to stand trial in Virginia.
Although the majority of the 10 sniper victims were killed in Maryland, both men face separate trials in Virginia following the intervention of the US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, who wanted the trial in the jurisdiction most likely to impose the maximum penalty.
Nor did Mr Muhammad appear perturbed by the implications of a decision to move his trial more than 200 miles south from the crime scene because the judge, LeRoy Millette, despaired of finding an impartial jury.
Yesterday's trial involves victim number seven of the sniper's murderous spree. Dean Meyers, who escaped grievous injury 30 years ago while serving in Vietnam, was shot through the head at a petrol station on his way home from work.
Mr Muhammad is to be tried under an untested statute that likens murder to acts of terrorism. Legal analysts say the provision obviates the need to prove Mr Muhammad's finger was on the trigger of the Bushmaster rifle used in most of the killings.
The trial is expected to take at least six weeks. Even with the change to a more neutral venue, it will take several days to find 12 men and women able to remain impartial to the chain of killings that terrorised the greater Washington area and received relentless media coverage. Two potential jurors bowed out yesterday, saying they could not keep an open mind.
The arrest of Mr Muhammad, as he slept at a layby in the Chevrolet saloon that had been converted into a sniper's hide, ended a three-week killing spree in the Washington area, and, as it later emerged, a longer cross-country odyssey in which Mr Muhammad and Mr Malvo are accused of killings on the west coast as well as in the south.
Last week, the judge disallowed an insanity plea because Mr Muhammad had refused to submit to a mental health test.
Legal analysts said yesterday that leaves Mr Muhammad dangerously exposed once the trial gets under way next month of the youth he once viewed as a surrogate son. Mr Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings last autumn, last week entered a plea of insanity, saying that he was indoctrinated to kill by Mr Muhammad. - (Guardian Service)