Washington-area sniper suspect John Muhammad transformed into a jacket-and-tie lawyer in his own defense on Monday, telling the jury in his murder trial about the vagaries of literal truth, legal theory and an anecdote about his daughter and some pilfered cookies.
Often seen as a silent prisoner in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit during a year of pre-trial appearances, Muhammad wore a button-down shirt, tie and sport jacket for his debut as his own attorney in his trial stemming from a series of shootings a year ago that terrorized Washington and in which 10 people were killed.
His former defense team, sitting with him in the small courtroom, seemed in shock that their ex-client was running the case. He faces two murder counts, as well as weapons and conspiracy charges.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In a surreal touch, Muhammad began his statement shortly after noon by saying "good evening" to the jury of 10 women and five men and went on to talk about truth.
"There's three truths: the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," he said. "Jesus said: `Ye shall know the truth' ... What happened between that time and this? ... I found out as man evolved ... we also evolved in our deceitfulness and our lies. We found out how to tell the truth with a lie."
He said there were "wicked lies," told by those who know the truth but are bent on deceit, and "insane lies," told by those who have begun to believe the lies are true.
Telling a story about his young daughter and some chocolate cookies he believed she had taken against his orders, Muhammad said he accused her wrongly, because he lacked the complete truth of the incident.
Only when prompted by Judge LeRoy Millette to say what he expected the evidence to show -- the customary purpose of opening statements -- Muhammad denied any involvement in the three-week string of shootings that terrorized the area in and around the US capital in October last year.
Speaking in a clear voice, sometimes referring to notes he worked on at the defense table, Muhammad said the prosecution's case was based on a theory, a word he was unfamiliar with. When he looked it up, he said he found, "It ends up as a guess, opinion ... I'm locked up. I'm denied my constitutional right based on a guess. What is it about a human life where we have reduced it to where we can take it based on a guess?"
He faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of murder.
Muhammad's every move was watched closely by uniformed sheriff's officers in the courtroom.
Millette agreed to let Muhammad serve as his own attorney moments before opening statements in the case, which began when prosecutor James Willett pulled a .223 Bushmaster automatic rifle from a duffel bag and set it up on the prosecution table, pointing vaguely toward the back of the courtroom.
Willett's opening was a methodical recitation of each attack, beginning with those he said were aimed at financing the sniper spree and extending to the series of seemingly random shootings that killed 10 people and injured 13 in the Washington area.
Muhammad cross-examined prosecution witnesses, including a British Army trainer of snipers, a colleague of murder victim Dean Meyers -- who was gunned down in Manassas, Virginia on Oct. 9, 2002 -- and a bank worker who said she worried that Muhammad and his young traveling companion Lee Malvo might be getting ready to rob the bank branch.
"Was it because we was black that you remember us?" Muhammad asked the bank worker.
"Not necessarily," she replied.
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