John Allen Muhammad, the man dubbed the “Beltway Sniper,” endured regular beatings with hoses and electrical cords, denial of food, and “suffering on a scale difficult to imagine,” according to attorneys trying to prevent his execution.
The lawyers argued in an federal court in Alexandria that jurors who sentenced Muhammad to death in March, 2004 were barred from hearing evidence of the “living hell” Muhammad faced growing up in Louisiana.
“The jury did not hear the horrific abuse of Muhammad as a child, and even more importantly, what effect all this … has on his moral culpability,” wrote attorneys James G. Connell III and Jonathan Sheldon.
Muhammad, 47, and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were convicted in 2003 of a spree that left 10 people dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.
The evidence was banned during Muhammad’s initial sentencing because he refused to be interviewed by the government’s mental-health expert. Muhammad did not want to acknowledge his horrific childhood, his lawyers argued.
Muhammad and his siblings moved to Baton Rouge, La., to live with their grandparents. There were 20 people of all ages living in a three-bedroom home. Muhammad’s grandmother was “a monster” who seemed to enjoy other people’s pain, his sister told the attorneys.
“We’re lucky to be alive; that’s how we grew up,” Bessie Holiday said.
Muhammand and his siblings were treated differently and had to eat separately from the others.
Relatives said that aunts would take their shoes off and beat them and drag them by their hair. Muhammad was forced to put his hand on the sparkplug of a lawnmower while his uncle pulled the cord.
That uncle, a prison guard, was later convicted of battery with a dangerous weapon for beating a youth to death at a correctional facility.
The appellate filing also includes evidence that Muhammad’s brain suffered abnormalities that are associated with schizophrenia and other disorders. The beatings could have contributed to some of the abnormalities, according to one psychiatrist.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
