Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the Washington, D.C., Beltway snipers, and Virginia agreed Monday to dismiss a pending Supreme Court case after the state changed criminal sentencing law for juveniles, the Associated Press reports. Under the new law, signed by Gov. Ralph Northam, people serving life terms for crimes they committed before they turned 18 can be considered for parole after serving at least 20 years. Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad terrorized the Washington region in 2002. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. The high court was weighing whether he deserves a new hearing because of Supreme Court rulings barring mandatory life sentences for juveniles and reserving the punishment for those “rare children whose crimes reflect irreparable corruption.”
Malvo’s life term will remain in effect, though he will have a chance at parole early in 2024. Malvo also faces six life-without-parole terms in Maryland. Appeals of those cases have been on hold. Malvo was a 15-year-old from Jamaica who had been sent to live in Antigua when he met Muhammad and latched onto him as a father figure. Muhammad trained and indoctrinated Malvo, and in 2002 the pair embarked on a nationwide killing rampage that concluded with three weeks of violence in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., that left 10 people dead and three wounded.