Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi was allowed to plead guilty to 10 murders, drug trafficking, racketeering and extortion, as federal prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against him in exchange for his cooperation with ongoing crime investigations. Under the terms of the agreement, Flemmi - who has also admitted to murders in Florida and Oklahoma - will serve a life without parole sentence in a secure unit reserved for cooperating inmates. Among the murders committed by Flemmi were the murder of his girlfriend and the daughter of another girlfriend. (Boston Globe, October 15, 2003). This plea contrasts sharply with the more aggressive recent use of the federal death penalty and with the Justice Department’s rejection of plea agreements in other cases. (See, e.g., Boston Globe, September 20, 2003). Moreover, Flemmi’s case bears similarities in terms of the number of victims to the case of John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who are facing the death penalty in Virginia. The Justice Department inserted this latter case into Virginia in order to secure death sentences, particularly against Malvo. Neither the federal death penalty nor the statute in Maryland, which was the location of most of the murders, allows the death penalty for someone like Malvo, who was a juvenile at the time of the crimes. See Federal Death Penalty.