Sniper suspects charged in Virginia

Evidence: part of a threatening note left by the sniper

Prosecutors in Virginia have charged two men arrested for the sniper shootings with one murder and one attempted murder.

John Allen Muhammad: Death penalty sought

Virginia laws would allow the state to execute both 17-year-old John Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, 41, if they were found guilty.

Evidence will be presented that the teenager killed at least one of the 10 people shot dead during the three-week murder spree, a prosecutor said, though he added that Mr Muhammad could also be responsible.

The two men have already each been charged with six counts of first-degree murder in Maryland's Montgomery County.

Legal complexities

The legal process that should lead to a trial is particularly complicated because the sniper murders were carried out in three states - each with different death penalty laws - as well as in different jurisdictions within those states, each of which is entitled to stage their own prosecution.

There could also be federal extortion charges against the men, who are being held in federal custody, as notes demanding $10m were found at the scene of some shootings.

There will be some evidence that the juvenile was the shooter just like there will be evidence that the adult was the shooter

Robert Horan Jr, prosecutor

On Monday, prosecutors from Virginia's Spotsylvania County charged Mr Muhammad and Mr Malvo with the murder of Kenneth Bridges on 11 October and the attempted murder of an unnamed woman one week earlier.

In common with authorities in Maryland, attorneys said they wanted to try Mr Malvo as an adult.

The prosecutor in another county in Virginia said his team would present evidence that Mr Malvo fired the shot that killed Linda Franklin on 14 October.

Robert Horan Jr, of Fairfax County, told the Associated Press news agency: "There will be some evidence that the juvenile was the shooter just like there will be evidence that the adult was the shooter."

He added: "But the point is, we don't know right now, and no one knows right now."

Death penalty argument

Correspondents say that if Mr Malvo, a Jamaican citizen, was found to be the gunman in Fairfax it could make it more likely that the death penalty could be imposed on him.

Investigators want to know how the murder rifle left this shop in Tacoma, Washington

Authorities in Virginia have been highlighting the fact that they could ask for the death sentence against both men as a way to secure what would be a very high-profile first trial.

The chief prosecutor in Montgomery County, Douglas Gansler, said last week he believed that his team had the strongest case against the men partly because there were six murders in the county, including four in a two-and-a-half hour period.

But the county's top elected official said the sentences available should the men be found guilty should be taken into account.

County Executive Douglas Duncan said: "They need to present a unified front to the public and say: 'Here's how we're going to handle this,' and wherever the case is strongest with the stiffest penalties, that's where they need to go."

More charges considered

Elsewhere in the case, murder charges are said to be being considered for the other three murders and three shooting injuries.

The new charges come two days after the funeral of Conrad Johnson, the last victim

Police investigations are continuing and include tracing the history of the gun found with the men when they were arrested and which forensics tests show was used for the sniper killings.

The southern state of Alabama has also filed murder charges against the sniper suspects over the killing of a woman during a robbery last month in the city of Montgomery.

A third man arrested in the case - Nathaniel Osbourne - is expected to be moved to Maryland.

Authorities say he was the co-owner of the blue car allegedly used in the killings and they want him as a witness.

Mr Muhammad - a convert to Islam - and Mr Malvo were arrested last week as they slept in a blue car.