International laws and treaties do not prohibit Virginia...

International laws and treaties do not prohibit Virginia from executing juveniles, a judge ruled in the case against teenage sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. Defense lawyers had argued that an overwhelming consensus of foreign nations and certain international treaties combined to bar the execution of people under 18 at the time of their crime. Prosecutors rejected the argument that international law trumped state or U.S. law. Robert F. Horan Jr. said the only treaty ratified by the United States that prohibits the execution of juveniles contains a specific exclusion from the U.S. Senate rejecting that part of the treaty. Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush agreed with prosecutors, saying, "It may at some point be the law of the land. Right now it's not." Malvo, now 18 but 17 at the time of the sniper shootings, and John Allen Muhammad, 42, have been charged with 13 shootings, including 10 deaths, over a 3-week span in October in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. They are also suspected or charged with shootings in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arizona and Washington state.