Jury starts deliberation on sentence for sniper

The jury that convicted US sniper John Muhammad for a killing spree last year in and around Washington, started deliberating yesterday on whether he should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

In heated closing statements that ended late on Thursday, Muhammad's lawyer said a life sentence would be a more fitting punishment than execution, and prosecutors told the jury that the crimes were so vile and that Muhammad posed such a future danger to society that the death penalty was the only appropriate option.

"The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst," prosecutor Paul Ebert said, as he turned to point at Muhammad who sat impassively at the defense table. "We don't administer it lightly, but that man is the worst of the worst. He knows it and he knows I know it."

Before Ebert spoke, fellow prosecutor James Willett offered a slide show of victims -- in life and horribly disfigured in death -- in the 23-day sniper siege around the US capital in October last year.

Muhammad, a 42-year-old Gulf War veteran, was found guilty of capital murder, conspiracy and weapons charges on Monday in one of 10 sniper killings that terrorized the Washington, area.

Judge LeRoy Millette told jurors that their deliberations would begin yesterday.

Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro sought to humanize Muhammad by reading tender letters written to the sniper by his three children after his conviction on Monday. These same letters entered into evidence were deemed "outrageous" exploitation by prosecutors.

Prosecutor Willett told jurors that the many video clips and children's letters, and the many defense witnesses who identified Muhammad as a good father, businessman and friend, did not refer to the man convicted of capital murder.