The man known as the Beltway Sniper has asked Virginia prosecutors to waive his rights to appeal his conviction and death sentence for the 2002 killing spree that left 10 people in the D.C. area dead.
John Allen Muhammad wrote a letter to the Virginia Attorney General’s Office stating he tried to stop his lawyer from working to overturn his case.
In the two-page, handwritten letter, Muhammad explained that he directed his complaint to the attorney general to make sure it “got to the right people — so that you can murder this innocent black man.”
Last month, Muhammad’s attorney James G. Connell filed an appeal in federal court in Alexandria arguing that the jurors who sentenced his client to death were barred from hearing evidence that Muhammad was brutally beaten as a child and suffered brain injuries that are associated with schizophrenia and other mental disorders.
Muhammad said his attorney filed the federal appeal “against mine [sic] will.”
Connell could not be reached late Tuesday.
The Virginia Attorney General’s Office notified Connell Tuesday that it had received the letter and enclosed a copy “for whatever action you deem appropriate.”
The Attorney General’s Office had no further comment, spokesman Tucker Martin said.
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.
Muhammad endured regular beatings with hoses and electrical cords, and denial of food by adult family members, Connell wrote in the appeal. Those beatings could have contributed to some abnormalities in Muhammad’s brain that are associated with schizophrenia and other mental disorders.
The evidence was barred 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.
