The Death-Penalty Maze

by Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Newsweek

When State’s Attorney Douglas Gansler stepped before a gaggle of microphones in suburban Montgomery County, Md., last Friday, officials watching TV downtown at the Department of Justice seethed. Gansler, an ambitious Democrat who stressed that "Montgomery County was the community most affected" by the killing spree, announced that "within the next few hours" he would file six first-degree-murder charges against suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. The Feds had asked Gansler to wait

When State’s Attorney Douglas Gansler stepped before a gaggle of microphones in suburban Montgomery County, Md., last Friday, officials watching TV downtown at the Department of Justice seethed. Gansler, an ambitious Democrat who stressed that "Montgomery County was the community most affected" by the killing spree, announced that "within the next few hours" he would file six first-degree-murder charges against suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. The Feds had asked Gansler to wait while they sorted through the tricky issues of where to try the high-profile case first. Gansler was "jumping the gun," one official said.

Montgomery County and the Feds aren’t the only ones staking a claim: prosecutors in Virginia counties and Alabama also want a crack at the case. The turf wars are mo…

When State’s Attorney Douglas Gansler stepped before a gaggle of microphones in suburban Montgomery County, Md., last Friday, officials watching TV downtown at the Department of Justice seethed. Gansler, an ambitious Democrat who stressed that "Montgomery County was the community most affected" by the killing spree, announced that "within the next few hours" he would file six first-degree-murder charges against suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. The Feds had asked Gansler to wait

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