Md., Va., Federal Prosecutors Weigh First Trial Site (washingtonpost.com): Prosecutors from Maryland, Virginia and the federal government were maneuvering yesterday for the first chance to try the sniper shootings case, with a high-level debate centering upon which venue has the best chance of carrying out the death penalty.
Montgomery County, which was the site of six of the 13 attacks, ordinarily would be the starting point for what's likely to be a complex and time-consuming series of court cases, say current and former prosecutors. But in Virginia, site of five sniper shootings, officials were pushing to take the lead in the overall prosecution by contrasting their experience in death penalty cases with that of Maryland, which has a historic reluctance to carry out executions and a moratorium on them imposed by outgoing Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D). [...] "There ought to be two determining factors above all others," said former Justice Department official George Terwilliger III. "Where is the strongest case with the best evidence? And which is the jurisdiction that can most expeditiously go through a death penalty trial where it has the best chance of being upheld?" [...] Malvo's status as a juvenile further complicated the picture; among the jurisdictions considering charges, only Virginia executes juveniles.

There is something unseemly about jurisdictions arguing about the best place to charge someone so that they can get around to killin' him before he's actually had a single trial.

To be sure, at the moment, there seems to be little doubt that Muhammad and Malvo were, at the least, involved in the killings. And, assuming that the evidence to support this case exists, opposed to the death penalty as it is carried out in this country as I am ... I cannot say that I will shed a particular tear if these people are executed for these crimes.

That said ... it does seem like we ought to let them actually have a trial before we decide where to execute them. It's not going to be remotely fair, and it's probably going to be breathakingly speedy so as to make sure that nobody in the area has forgotten the terror they felt at wondering if they'd be next. But they ought to at least make the token effort of pretending it's going to be a fair trial.

(That said, I make you a prediction: since Virginia's willingness to execute is so welll known, both Muhammad and Malvo will be tried on Virginia capital charges. After all, Virginia is the only one of the competing jurisdictions which can execute Malvo; why not go for the package deal?)

Actually, Maryland has capital punishment. The governor has a temporary moritorium on carrying executions out, but it's just something the governor has done, and an exception could be made for this case.

Also, Alabama wants to try both of them on capital murder charges.

The chance of the older one not being executed are really low; they get three chances at him.

Additionally, I think the debate is less about making a pre-judgment, and more about allowing the possibility of the death penalty to remain open. With the moratorium in Maryland, it's less likely that the governor would allow any capital sentence to be carried out. Additionally, there may be the legal question of whether or not he can allow it to be carried out in face of the fact that the moratorium has been in place for however long and he would have to, at the least, make an exception for one or both parties in the case of a death sentence.

I don't think D.C. has a death penalty, but federal charges would allow that shooting instance to qualify as a capital crime.