SNIPER SHOOTINGS La. prosecutor to seek death penalty

A victim's husband says he opposes execution for Lee Boyd Malvo.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Lee Boyd Malvo escaped execution in Virginia for one of the Washington sniper killings, but prosecutors in other states want a crack at winning a death sentence against him and his mentor, too.
A jury in Chesapeake, Va., sentenced Malvo, 18, to life without parole Tuesday for killing FBI analyst Linda Franklin. Last month, another jury in Virginia decided that Malvo's partner in crime, John Allen Muhammad, 42, deserves the death penalty for the slaying of a man at a gas station.
Malvo and Muhammad have been linked to 20 shootings in all, including 13 deaths in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.
Louisiana case
Both men are charged with murder in Baton Rouge in the September 2002 killing of Hong Im Ballenger, who was shot in the head as she left work at the beauty supply house she managed.
John Sinquefield, chief assistant district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish, said neither Malvo's age -- he was 17 at the time of the killing -- nor the argument that Malvo was under Muhammad's sinister influence will deter him from seeking the death penalty in the Ballenger case.
"I haven't seen anything that would make me believe that he didn't know right from wrong at the time he committed the crime or that he was mentally deficient," Sinquefield said. He said he will also seek the death penalty for Muhammad.
Ballenger's husband, James Ballenger, said he opposes the death penalty for Malvo. "In prison, he might change, accept Jesus and be in heaven," he said. "Otherwise, he'll sign his own death warrant for hell."