Jurors in Virginia sen­tenced juve­nile offend­er Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison with­out parole after find­ing him guilty of mur­der­ing Linda Franklin, who was one of 10 vic­tims killed dur­ing a series of shoot­ings in October 2002. Malvo was 17 at the time of the crime. Attorney General John Ashcroft had cit­ed Virginia’s abil­i­ty to impose ​“the ulti­mate sanc­tion” in send­ing Malvo and his men­tor, John Muhammad, to Virginia for pros­e­cu­tion. Virginia is one of only 21 states that allow the exe­cu­tion of those who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crime. Since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976, Virginia is one of only six states that have exe­cut­ed some­one whose crime was com­mit­ted as a juve­nile. (Associated Press, December 23, 2003) See Juvenile Death Penalty and Life Without Parole.

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