All Blog Posts from Crimesider

JARRATT, Virginia - It was a peaceful end for John Allen Muhammad, the man behind the 2002 Washington D.C.-area sniper attacks - a peace not granted to Muhammad's 10 victims, nor the families they have left behind.

Calm, stoic and defiant to the end, Muhammad refused to utter any final words. He died by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks that October.

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RICHMOND, Va. - Unless Virginia's governor steps in, sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad will be executed Tuesday for attacks that terrorized the U.S. capital region for three weeks in 2002.

Muhammad was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas, Virginia, gas station during a spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

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NEW YORK - The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to block Tuesday's execution of Washington, D.C. sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammed.

The Court did not issue a statement Monday on why it refused to consider his appeal.

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MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho - D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad would be taken into the Idaho desert and killed slowly over three days, if Marion Lewis had his way.

"He would be screaming the whole time. That's why I can't claim to be a good Christian," said Lewis, whose 25-year-old daughter was killed in Maryland in the 2002 sniper spree.

But instead of personal retribution, Lewis would settle for being present in the Virginia death chamber Nov. 10 when Muhammad is scheduled to die.

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SAN FRANCISCO - Police say a DNA test has now made infamous serial killer Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez a suspect in the 1984 killing of a nine-year old girl in San Francisco.

For 25 years, the unsolved murder of 9-year-old Mei Leung haunted San Francisco police homicide inspector Holly Pera, a novice patrol officer at the time who now helps solve the department's cold cases.

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LAS VEGAS - Federal prosecutors in Nevada and Washington are weighing whether to seek the death penalty for the reputed leader of a violent white supremacy prison gang who is awaiting trial on murder and racketeering charges.

That could make Ronald L. "Joey" Sellers the first person in decades in Nevada to die at the hands of the United States government.

But his death could be swifter.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - He was the condemned prisoner that was set to die last week in Ohio until a vein — or rather the lack of a usable one — halted his execution after hours of toil.

Technicians searched for a vein strong enough to deliver a three-drug lethal injection into convicted killer Romell Broom until ultimately giving up.

But can the State of Ohio try to execute the same man twice?

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RICHMOND, Va. - He was the man that had the nation's capital terrified. Now, John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that left 10 dead, is set to be executed November 10th.

Prince William County Circuit Judge Mary Grace O'Brien picked a Tuesday for the execution so that courts would be open the day before in case of any last-minute legal appeals.

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LUCASVILLE, Ohio - It was a vein — or rather the lack of a usable one — that ultimately halted an Ohio inmate's execution for a week. However, one death penalty scholar says possible legal challenges could further delay the prisoner's return to the death chamber.

Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday issued a one-week reprieve to Romell Broom, 53, who spent more than two hours awaiting execution as technicians searched for a vein strong enough to deliver a three-drug lethal injection.

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) A Christian woman accused of distributing the Bible, a book banned in communist North Korea, was publicly executed last month for the crime, South Korean activists said Friday.

The 33-year-old mother of three, Ri Hyon Ok, also was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States, and of organizing dissidents, a rights group said in Seoul, citing documents obtained from the North.

The Investigative Commission on Crime Against Humanity report included a copy of Ri's government-issued photo ID and said her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her June 16 execution.

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