The remains of David Maland, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent who was fatally shot 20 miles south of the Canadian border on Monday, have been transported to a funeral home in Burlington. During the procession, numerous police vehicles trailed the hearse, while Vermont State Troopers paid their respects.
Lawyers representing Teresa Youngblut, the accused in the January 20 shooting that resulted in Agent David Maland’s death, are criticizing the Justice Department. They claim the department is expediting a path to capital punishment, infringing upon her constitutional rights.
In a motion presented to federal court on June 30, Youngblut’s defense team argued that the government’s scheduled decision on whether to seek the death penalty is “unusually swift” and cautioned that it could make the pretrial phase appear “almost irrelevant.”
“This Court should step in to ensure Ms. Youngblut receives a meaningful opportunity to persuade the government not to pursue the death penalty,” the motion says.
Youngblut, 21, has been linked by investigators to “Ziz,” a fringe, self-described vegan, anti-government, transgender-rights collective that federal authorities say may be connected to multiple homicides throughout the U.S.
The DOJ’s deadline, the defense said, “virtually ensures that [Youngblut’s] mitigation presentation has no realistic chance of serving its purpose.”
In a Jan. 27 motion for pretrial detention, the government alleged that Youngblut had no stable residence, had an extensive travel history and associations with individuals under investigation in a double homicide in Pennsylvania and another killing in Vallejo, California.
The government also pointed to Youngblut’s journal, which allegedly referenced LSD usage and “high vibration” trips that led prosecutors to argue that she was a flight risk.
Border Patrol Agent David Maland, a Minnesota native and U.S. Air Force veteran, worked as a Border Patrol agent at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Newport Station. He spent nine years in the military and 15 working for the federal government. (David Maland/Joan Maland via AP)
The June 30 motion also included supporting letters from defense counsel and a declaration from Matthew Rubenstein, the director of the Capital Resource Counsel Project, who attested that the DOJ’s current timeline falls outside established norms in federal death penalty proceedings.
If the court declines to intervene, Youngblut’s attorneys warned that the current course could trigger costly delays and the misuse of capital punishment.
“An artificial rush in the authorization process may end up backfiring,” the defense cautioned, “resulting in avoidable delay, wasted resources, and the arbitrary imposition of the most serious punishment our legal system allows.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Federal Public Defender – District of Vermont for comment.
