Press Cameras Barred From Sniper Trial

Judge Rules On Several Motions; Approves Investigators For Malvo

(CBS)  A judge rejected news media requests Monday to allow still and television cameras in the courtroom for the trial of sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo.
"I am concerned with the possible prejudice to Mr. Malvo, whether still cameras or TV cameras," Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush said a hearing.

She did approve a request from Fairfax County to allow a closed-circuit broadcast to an overflow courtroom for extra reporters and victims' families.

The prosecution objected only to a televised broadcast, while Malvo's lawyers opposed any cameras, including a closed-circuit broadcast.

Malvo, 18, and John Allen Muhammad, 42, have been accused of shooting 19 people — killing 13 and wounding six — in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. No one was hit in another incident, in which a bullet struck a store window.

In all, the judge was expected to address 13 defense motions, including one claiming Virginia's death-penalty law is unconstitutionally vague.

Among the issues decided Monday morning, the judge approved the hiring at taxpayer expense of three investigators to help the defense, not the five requested by defense lawyer Michael Arif.

According to the defense motion, the job of the three experts will be "to investigate, interview witnesses, collect data and analyze all information and evidence." The motion cites Malvo's youth, lack of resources, and the geographic breadth of the crimes with which he's charged as reasons for the state to provide multiple investigators.

Roush also agreed to a defense request to limit the number of officers standing near Malvo during the trial, to avoid making the jury think Malvo posed an undue threat.

She rejected a defense request that potential jurors be interviewed individually, saying instead that they may be interviewed in groups of three.

Prosecutors were dismissive of the defense claims. The defense argument against the death-penalty law "can best be described as sixty-eight pages of diatribe against the Supreme Court of Virginia," Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said. "It cites surprisingly few Virginia cases and then only to tell us how wrong they are."

Prosecutors had earlier responded to defense requests for information by releasing new details of their case against Malvo. Their response last week revealed that Malvo implicated Muhammad as an equal partner in the shootings, with Muhammad acting as a spotter and calling off shots.

They also said Malvo has made multiple confessions to pulling the trigger in some of the shootings, including the Oct. 14 shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, for which he is facing trial in Fairfax County.