Court reviewing Lee Boyd Malvo’s life sentences

Maryland's highest court heard arguments on Tuesday whether Jamaican-born Washington, D.C., sniper Lee Boyd Malvo's six life sentences without possibility of  parole should be reconsidered because of  a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The ruling barred mandatory life sentences for juveniles.

Kiran Iyer, a public defender, argued before the Maryland Court of  Appeals that life without parole sentences for Malvo, who was 17 at the time of  the shootings that terrorized the region, should be reconsidered in light of  the Supreme Court ruling. 

He also contends his client should benefit from Maryland's new law enabling prisoners convicted as juveniles to seek release once they have served at least 20 years.

Mr. Iyer told the court that a judge failed to properly consider Malvo's youth during sentencing. 

He also contended that it was clear that the judge found Malvo was capable of  change, which takes on added significance under changes in the law.

The Court of  Appeals did not issue a ruling Tuesday. 

It could take months for a decision.

Malvo and his mentor, John Allen Muhammad, then 41, shot people in Virginia, Maryland and Washington as they pumped gas, loaded packages into their cars and went about their everyday business during a three-week period in 2002.

Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed in Virginia in 2009.