Mike on Crime

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
McLEAN, Va. – Convicted Washington D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad has changed his mind about not appealing his death sentence.

He was sentenced in 2003 to die for the shooting rampage the year before that left 10 people dead. Allen had written a letter to Virginia’s attorney general saying he wanted to suspend all appeals and that he had not authorized appeals that had already been filed on his behalf.

But his lawyer this week wrote to a federal judge that Muhammad now does want to move ahead with an appeal and the state prosecutor on the case says she has no objections.

Another Muhammad lawyer says it’s not unusual for death row inmates to waffle on the appeals process.

Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo were both convicted in the 2002 snipings.