RUSH TO THE GURNEY

The U.S. Department of Justice transferred prosecution of accused snipers John Muhammed and John Lee Malvo to Virginia last week because, said Attorney General John Ashcroft, that state has “the best law, the best facts and the best range of available penalties.” In other words, Virginia has a death penalty and knows how to us it.

In particular, Virginia has a death penalty that applies to juveniles – Mr. Malvo is but 17 – while the death penalty in Maryland, the scene of more sniper attacks than Virginia and thus the logical choice for initial prosecution, does not. Virginia also has a new anti-terrorism law that makes it a capital crime to kill with the intent of intimidating the public or influencing government. For good measure, the Justice Department sent the two defendants to different counties in Virginia, making it all but impossible for young Mr. Malvo to claim he was coerced, manipulated or otherwise duped into participating in these horrifying crimes by Mr. Muhammed, 41, his putative “father” and spiritual guide.

Forum-shopping is nothing new in the criminal justice system; defendants do it all the time when a change of venue suits them and those who commit crimes in multiple jurisdictions must accept the consequences of being prosecuted where conviction seems most likely. In this case, however, authorities have gone beyond seeking the most favorable environment for convictions and instead are trying to ensure that both defendants are put to death.

Mr. Malvo is not a good candidate in any campaign to repeal the juvenile death penalty. He is 17, less than a year from adulthood as defined for every nearly purpose but buying alcohol.

He is arrogant, shows no remorse – he seems, according to leaked reports from his interrogations, to be asking for a needle in the arm.

But he also is a young man who was neglected by both parents as a child and utterly abandoned when barely into his teens. He was living on his own and fending for himself – in impoverished Antigua, separated from any friends and family back home in Jamaica, uneducated, unskilled, just 15 years old – when he came under the influence of the malcontent John Muhammad. What little is known so far about their life together suggests manipulation and abuse that borders on brainwashing. By severing these cases into two counties, the Justice Department has taken the cynical step of preventing a jury from considering relevant mitigating circumstances that could make the difference between a kid spending the rest of his life in prison or being put to death.

If there is anything to be learned from this case about how criminally minded adults can exploit young and impressionable minds into doing their dirty work, Virginia authorities, like their federal counterparts, seem determined to prevent it being learned. Last week, police in Fairfax County interrogated Mr. Malvo for seven hours without his court-appointed guardian. They repeatedly denied that guardian access to the accused. When the guardian, a lawyer, complained, they asserted that a young man who had demonstrated in the most heinous way imaginable his inability to make wise decisions was capable of deciding for himself whether to ask for legal counsel. The rush to the gurney is on.