Other US states want to execute Washington sniper partner

Lee Boyd Malvo escaped execution in Virginia for one of the Washington sniper killings, but prosecutors in other states want a crack at securing a death sentence against the teenager, and his mentor too.

A jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, sentenced Malvo, 18, to life without parole on Wednesday for killing FBI analyst Linda Franklin.

Last month, another jury in Virginia decided 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 a total of 13 deaths in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, DC.

Both men are charged with a murder in Baton Rouge in September last year.

The district attorney's office there said neither Malvo's age - he was 17 at the time of the killing - nor the argument that he was under Muhammad's sinister influence would deter it from seeking the death penalty in this case.

In Alabama, Muhammad and Malvo are charged with murder in a September 2002 shooting outside a Montgomery liquor store.

The district attorney there has said she intends to bring both men to Alabama for trial and will seek the death penalty against both.