Now that John Muhammad and John Lee Malvo have been captured, the nation can breathe a sigh of relief. The reign of terror brought on by these two murderers is finally over.

Since Muhammad and Malvo were found sleeping amid a rifle, ammunition and shooting mittens inside their modified car, it really leaves little doubt that these men are the killers, and ballistics evidence will only further prove their guilt.

The mountain of damning evidence against the snipers suggests that this trial is going to be a legal formality leading up to the inevitable sentencing, which is looking more and more like capital punishment.

So if all the evidence is there, and the trial is an apparent lock, the real question, therefore, is who gets to try the case?

Maryland, the state where most of this carnage has occurred, is ironically the last place this trial will be held, as Governor Parris Glendening placed a moratorium on all executions within the state, and Maryland will not execute juvenile criminals (Malvo will be 18 in three months).

It’s obvious that the Justice Department and the Virginia district attorney’s offices are well aware of this fact, as both are recommending the snipers be tried outside of Maryland, preferably somewhere where it is much easier to achieve a death sentence.

Virginia so far has been the front-runner for the trial, since Malvo and Muhammad can be tied to three murders in that state. Virginia is also a major fan of the death penalty, allowing juvenile executions and is second only to Texas with 86 total executions since 1976.

The attorney general’s office has also charged Muhammad and Malvo on federal counts of extortion and various firearms charges, but this seems to be a ploy to keep the two men from being sent back to Montgomery County in Maryland to stand trial.

The government is literally playing a game of ‘keep away’ with Maryland in order to ensure Muhammad and Malvo do not stand trial there and instead stand trial in Virginia, where an execution is almost guaranteed. Because of Maryland’s lenient attitude toward murderers, the state has been rendered impotent to prosecute the suspects to the fullest extent of the law.

Now Maryland’s fanciful, idealistic belief that all people deserve to live, regardless of their terrible crimes, has been brought into question. Maryland enacted its death penalty moratorium never considering that monsters like Muhammad and Malvo would emerge, apparently believing evil people and terrible crimes just don’t occur in their fine state.

The embarrassing situation Maryland is facing right now is the exact reason every state needs to have a death penalty.

Believe it or not, there is a difference between a state having a death penalty and a state having a ‘Texas-sized’ death penalty. Rather than demanding the arbitrary executions of every murderer, society must always keep the death penalty option open just for events like this one.

Often death penalty opponents claim that a death sentence ignores the sanctity of human life, since the government gives itself the right to kill. But how can a just society truly believe in justice when it cannot hand down terrible punishments for terrible crimes such as this?

Admittedly, life in prison without the possibility of parole is a living hell and a suitable punishment for any murderer. But Muhammad and Malvo are far worse than any common killer; their only motives were to create terror and death. Rather than a crime of passion or a felony-homicide, these men killed for the sake of killing, choosing innocent, unaware civilians at random and picking them off like sitting ducks. Methodical, professional and extremely well skilled, the Maryland snipers kept three states in an utter panic for weeks.

After 13 attacks, 10 dead bodies and countless shattered lives, how can we just throw these men in with the rest? Giving mass murderers the same punishment as a drug trafficker and allowing them to sit in their cells giving interviews on network television is not justice.

These are not the methods of a society that values the sanctity of human life. Monsters like these must be held up as an example of something this nation will not tolerate, and must be punished as harshly as we know how.

Each state must have a death penalty for cases such as this one. When there is no doubt in the person’s guilt and their horrible crimes have questioned the limits of human decency, it is the responsibility of our government to put them to death.

Governor Glendening must also take a hard look at his death penalty moratorium and decide whether or not he truly believes his state is acting in the best interest of society. When mass murders are allowed to live to a ripe, old age, it effectively renders the judicial system inept and weak at the time it is truly being tested.