And now, after the first two trials of Muhammad and Malvo have concluded, La Ruffa is very, very confused.
It's not that he doesn't understand why he was lucky enough to survive, nor is it that he doesn't understand why the snipers randomly shot and killed ten people. Instead, La Ruffa doesn't understand why the snipers received two different sentences after the guilt phases of their trials. Muhammad will get the death penalty while Malvo will spend the rest of his life in prison. To La Ruffa, both Muhammad and Malvo are equally culpable for the shots they fired at him on that September day.
"There are two people who committed the ultimate crime," La Ruffa said. "One got the ultimate penalty and one didn't. I ask you, why? When you compare the two, was Malvo less guilty than Muhammad? Did he do things that were less? I don't think so. It doesn't seem to be logical."
Certainly, La Ruffa makes a strong point.
Yet, despite the heinousness of the crimes and the terrible anguish suffered by the victims and the victims' families, there is logic and reason in the disparity of the sentences: Malvo was a juvenile when he committed his crime.
Although 65% of people in the United States support the death penalty, only 21% favor it for those who committed their crime as a juvenile. Of course, the question of whether or not popular sentiment has a bearing on law is a valid one; simply because four out of five people don't believe juveniles should be put to death doesn't mean that the statutes are meaningless. However, in the past ten years, six states have abolished their death penalty statutes for juveniles and fifteen other states have introduced legislation outlawing the practice.
Clearly, the quiet public opposition to the death penalty for juveniles is growing.
Yet some would argue that despite a lack of public support for the death penalty for juveniles, special cases do exist in which the death penalty should be applied. After all, twenty-one states do have laws that allow sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to be put to death. And what is a better example than the Malvo case? Is there another case that has created such an outrage against the accused? Isn't the Malvo case the best special exception?
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