Sniper’s appeal based on childhood beatings

Details would not have affected Montgomery case, prosecutor says

At the time, Muhammad refused to be interviewed by a mental health expert for the state to evaluate his mental state. As a result, the judge barred any expert testimony of Muhammad’s mental health during the penalty phase.

In 2006, Muhammad was found guilty in Montgomery County of six counts of first-degree murder for his role in the 2002 sniper spree that killed six people in the county.

His co-defendant Lee Boyd Malvo pled guilty to six counts of first-degree murder in Montgomery County at his 2006 hearing.

The two men, dubbed the Beltway snipers, killed 10 people in the Washington region in a three-week spree in October 2002.

Former Montgomery County Principal Deputy State’s Attorney Katherine Winfree, now chief deputy attorney general for Maryland, said in an interview Tuesday the details of Muhammad’s abused childhood would not have mattered at his Montgomery County child since the state had not sought the death penalty and he did not seek an insanity plea, Winfree said.

Muhammad’s public defenders had tried to offer an insanity plea in Montgomery County, but Muhammad fired them in order to represent himself at the trial.

One of the reasons the county prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in Maryland during his trial for killing six people here is because Muhammad was already sentenced to death in 2003 in Virginia, Winfree said.

Unless the federal courts do away with the death penalty, Winfree said she expects Muhammad will be put to death once his appeals are exhausted.

‘‘You can only execute someone once,” Winfree said of Maryland’s decision not to seek the death penalty against him.