DC sniper executed

[Every Breaking Wave]

From Reuters.

John Allen Muhammad was executed on Tuesday for masterminding and carrying out with his teenage accomplice the 2002 sniper shootings that killed 10 people and terrified the Washington, D.C. region a year after the September 11 and the deadly anthrax attacks.

The 48-year-old Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, said Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor.

"Death was pronounced at 9:11 pm. There were no complications. Mr. Muhammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement. He did not acknowledge us or make any statement whatsoever," Traylor told reporters.

Muhammad was convicted of killing Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas, Virginia, during a three-week shooting spree in October 2002 that spanned Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also was convicted in a separate trial of another killing in Virginia and is serving a life sentence in prison.

Malvo was 17 at the time of the shootings.

There has been uncertainty over exactly how many of the victims were shot by Malvo and how many were killed by Muhammad, though courts have found they acted together in all of the sniper slayings.

The random shootings terrified many people in and around the U.S. capital a year after the hijacked plane attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and the mailing of deadly anthrax-laced letters to politicians and media organizations.

The pair shot innocent people who were going about the ordinary tasks of daily life in places like gas stations, shopping mall parking lots and outside restaurants and schools.
Authorities said Muhammad and Malvo cut a special hole in the back of a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice and fired rifle shots from the trunk of the car.

The execution took place after Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine rejected Muhammad's request for clemency based on his claims of mental illness.

"I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine said in a statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request by Muhammad's lawyers to halt his execution and also rejected their appeal.

Muhammad's current lawyers argued that his attorneys at trial were ineffective by allowing Muhammad to briefly represent himself at the start of his trial. They said he was too mentally impaired to act as his own lawyer.

 

[PokemonHero]

All I can say is that I'm glad it's finally over. I remember when the one boy was wounded while walking to school, all the schools in my area (about one hour from the DC Metro area) refused to let anyone go outside for recess.

It's sad that some people feel like that they have to commit such horrendous acts, but that is the world we live in. This should've been settled a long time ago.

 

[Nicoleta01]

I'm glad it is finally over. Best wishes to the victim's families.

 

[Falconwing]

The guy who terrorized people a year after 9/11 dies at 9:11?

Talk about a "TAKE THAT!"

 

[fate]

Yeah, I remember when he was said to be in the area they didn't want to let us out of school. On the way home I kept looking around extremely paranoid. What a walk home that was...

 

[Jeff]

Even way over here on Kent Island (which is about an hour east of DC), people were terrified to get out of their cars to pump gas. Yeah, they never came over this way, but there was no telling where they'd strike next, and the worst part was that it didn't matter what you were doing, you were a target.

I'm glad it's all finally over.

 

[Eredar Warlock]

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish.

 

[Magmaster12]

I was told that the year of those shooting they actually cancelled the DC trip at my school.