STORM2K

Judge Throws Out Part of Sniper Suspect Lee Boyd Malvo's Confession

THE DECISION by Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush allows prosecutors to use Malvo’s own words against him at his November trial. He confessed to several of the shootings, including the Oct. 14 killing of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store.
“Having considered the totality of the circumstances surrounding the police interrogation ... I conclude that his statement was made voluntarily,” Roush wrote.
The judge did agree to throw out what has been described as small talk among Malvo and his interrogators while waiting for food to arrive. That portion of the interview has been said to include some discussion of Malvo’s relationship to fellow suspect John Allen Muhammad, in which Malvo said he learned “everything” from his friend and said he occasionally gave orders to Muhammad.
But that exclusion appeared to be of little consequence, as his statements about the shootings came later in the interview and the judge ruled that they can be used at trial.

??? y y y??

Pure technicality!! This one is hard to explain.

In the judge's mind.. the "small talk" was NOT part of the actual interrogation because Malvo was having a conversation (not questioning by) with police while waiting on food. Falls under "wire tap" laws which is not never admissible in court. But the prosecutors are saying it does not matter because they have hours and hours of interrogation in which Malvo confessed to killings. Just another ploy by the defense to have ALL confessions ousted from being heard by a jury. The judge did exactly what he was supposed to do by throwing out the conversation while waiting on food.

I understand the technicality but that's just one more thing wrong with our justice system IMO. We bend over backwards to help the accused but seem to forget the victims and their families! Don't get me wrong, we have the best system in the world from what I've seen, but there's always room for improvement!

Yep - too bad there's "for-the-record" and "off-the-record"...
Alot more is known with "off the record"...but heard by the judge?
Jeez....gimme a break, puh-leazzzze....!!!

What I heard on the news is that the technicality was due to the police not reading him his rights until about an hour after he started talking - I guess after he ate. Out of 6 hours of conversation about four or five hours will be admitted in total.

the police should've read him his rights right away!!!

I agree Stephanie but it would been better if they had been shot "resisting"! These are cold blooded murderers no doubt about it. The rest of this is just song and dance.....

Exactly right on the Miranda rights Steph. That so called public defender is just using every resource he has to defend this cold blooded killer!!

Can't blame the judge here... he was abiding by the laws.

That public defender had to dig for that evidence. TRUST ME!!

ahh i guess that makes more sense...thanks for clearing it up eveyrone

This is sad.

Lindaloo wrote:Exactly right on the Miranda rights Steph. That so called public defender is just using every resource he has to defend this cold blooded killer!!

Can't blame the judge here... he was abiding by the laws.

That public defender had to dig for that evidence. TRUST ME!!

Definately! He's going to need all of the help he's gonna get too.

Sad indeed..I like the shot resting idea!!!!