Nearly two decades after Lee Boyd Malvo engaged in a serial sniper shooting spree that terrorized Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia and left 10 dead, the Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with his sentence of life without parole, CNN reports.
Last year, a Richmond, Virginia-based federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing trial for Malvo, who was 17 when the crimes were committed in 2002, citing two Supreme Court opinions issued subsequent to his sentencing in state courts. Wednesday, the justices struggled for more than an hour discussing the impact of their own prior cases as well as the details concerning Virginia’s sentencing scheme.