All Gina King could do was sit and watch the news from her East Lansing home and worry about her family in Virginia as a sniper terrorized the Washington, D.C., area.
When the smoke settled after a three-week shooting spree, 10 people had been shot to death and three were wounded.
Two suspects, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were arrested on Oct. 24.
The federal government announced Tuesday it will seek the death penalty for Muhammad, but won’t for Malvo because he is a juvenile.
King, a no-preference sophomore, said she felt the situation was out of her hands when her two cousins were forced to stay indoors for more than a week because schools were closed.
Her cousins live with her uncle in Midlothian, Va., which is near the area targeted by the sniper.
“I felt really helpless about it because it’s my family,” she said. “You see things that affect the rest of the world, and you want to help, but it’s really never affected my family. I was very concerned and I was praying for them.”
Christopher Smith, an MSU criminal justice professor, said the death penalty wouldn’t be a good solution in this case.
“American society has amply demonstrated that we are incapable of imposing the death penalty in a fair and indiscriminatory way,” said Smith, who has published eight books about the death penalty and the constitutional rights concerning it. “The thing you really have to be concerned with is copycats.
“I don’t know what the future holds with respect to that, and it’s unsettling.”
King said she is undecided on the death penalty, but said she thinks the two men suspected in the sniper case should be punished severely.
“I would like to see these snipers suffer the way these families are suffering,” she said. “In some sense, they aren’t suffering in the same way like these families. But they took people’s lives, so I agree that their lives should be taken.”
Advertising sophomore Nicole Bilski said she’s thankful her family wasn’t involved.
“It’s selfish, but a lot of people are saying, ‘Oh thank God it’s there,’” she said. “But I think it could definitely happen here.”
King said she never wishes the situation was on anyone else - except maybe the person or people responsible.
“It’s just a very frustrating and unfair situation,” she said. “It’s the most hatred I’ve seen since Sept. 11.”
