Virginia's attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block an order granting a resentencing for Washington, D.C., sniper Lee Boyd Malvo.
Attorney General Mark Herring's application for a stay was filed Thursday.
Herring previously announced he would ask the high court to review a June ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said Malvo should be resentenced in Virginia under the Supreme Court's new rules for punishing juveniles. Herring argues Malvo's sentence already complies with those rules.
Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad fatally shot 10 people in the Washington area in 2002. Muhammad was executed. Malvo got several life terms, including four in Virginia.
The filing calls Malvo "one of the most heinous murderers" in Virginia's history.
