[JURIST] AP is reporting that a jury in Rockville, Md. has convicted Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad [BBC profile] of six counts of murder. The jurors heard four weeks of testimony [JURIST report] in the trial, in which Muhammad represented himself [JURIST report]. Muhammad has already been convicted and sentenced to death [JURIST report] in Virginia for shootings there. Maryland prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty [JURIST report] for Muhammad but want a second conviction in case the Virginia conviction is overturned on appeal.

Muhammad's alleged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo [BBC profile], who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to the Virginia charges and received a life sentence, testified last week [JURIST report] in the Maryland case that Muhammad pulled the trigger in five of the six killings there. Muhammad contends that the government framed him and that he was in the Washington area looking for his ex-wife and children. In addition to the 2002 shootings in and around the District of Columbia [Washington Post backgrounder], Muhammad and Malvo are suspects in killings in five other states. From Montgomery County, the Gazette has continuing local coverage.