D.C. Sniper John Allen Muhammad Executed

Muhammad Died by Lethal Injection; Clemency Request Denied By Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine

(CBS/AP)  Last Updated at 9:35 p.m. EST

The mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 in the Washington, D.C., region has been executed.

A prison spokesman says John Allen Muhammad died by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center.

Prison spokesman Larry Traylor says Muhammad had no final words. He says he didn't hear him utter a word during the execution.

Muhammad's attorneys had asked Gov. Tim Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they said he was severely mentally ill, but Kaine denied him clemency.

"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, who is known for carefully considering death penalty cases, said in a statement. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."

The Virginia Department of Corrections said that Muhammad's attorneys are planning to meet with him this afternoon, and that he does not have a spiritual advisor.

Muhammad's attorneys released a statement stating they respected the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Governor to not stay the execution, but added, "In its effort to race John Allen Muhammad to his death before his appeals could be pursued, the state of Virginia will execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day."

Muhammad, 48, was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station in northern Virginia. He and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also were suspected of fatal shootings in Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.

Prosecutors chose to put Muhammad and Malvo on trial in Virginia first because of the state's willingness to execute killers. He and Malvo were also convicted of six other murders in Maryland and both were sentenced to six life terms.

The death penalty was later ruled out for Malvo because the U.S. Supreme Court barred the execution of juveniles, who was 17 during the killing spree.

Lawyers See John Allen Muhammad's Humanity
The Sniper's Victims
Profiles of the Snipers
Map: The 2002 Killing Spree
Photos: The Maryland Trial
Photos: The Virginia Trial

The motive for the shootings in the nation's capital region remains murky. Malvo said Muhammad wanted to use the plot to extort $10 million from the government to set up a camp in Canada where homeless children would be trained as terrorists. But Muhammad's ex-wife has said she believes the attacks were a smoke screen for his plan to kill her and regain custody of their three children.

Muhammad has never testified or explained why he directed the attacks that terrorized the Washington region, with victims gunned down while doing everyday chores. People stayed indoors, and those who had to go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves less of a target.

The terror ended Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and Malvo as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted so a shooter could hide in the trunk and fire through a hole in the body of the vehicle.

Assistant Chief Drew Tracy, who led the SWAT team response to the sniper shootings for the Montgomery County, Md., police department, vividly recalled the takedown of Muhammad and Malvo for CBS News Justice and Homeland Security correspondent Bob Orr.

"I walked over towards Muhammad, and when I looked at him he had a look about him that was just pure evil," Tracy told Orr.

"If he's put to death, does that matter?" Orr asked.

"In this situation, yes," Tracy said.

Sniper victim Paul LaRuffa agreed.

"If you're going to have a death penalty, he certainly deserves it," LaRuffa told Orr.

LaRuffa was left for dead a month before the sniper shootings began. He said Muhammad shot him five times at point blank range and stole his computer and $3,500, money that would be used to finance the coming carnage.

"I was hit through (my) arm," LaRuffa told Orr. "I was hit in the chest, the stomach, the diaphragm and my spine."

But he says he has no interest in watching Muhammad die.

"Will I attend?" LaRuffa told Orr. "No, I won't be there. I don't have a need to have a day in my life taken up by that."

Muhammad had been in and out of the military since he graduated from high school in Louisiana and entered the National Guard. A convert to Islam, John Allen Williams would later change his name to Muhammad.

He joined the Army in 1985 and trained in Washington state as a combat engineer. He did not take special sniper training but earned an expert rating in the M-16 rifle - the military cousin of the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle used in the sniper shootings.

However, his life was full of failure. He was twice divorced, and after serving in the first Iraq war, he could never find financial stability.

He opened a karate school but it didn't last; neither did his car repair shop. The man who looked for self-discipline in exercise and Islam found himself living in a homeless shelter in 2001 and a few months later was accused of shoplifting food.

On Tuesday, Muhammad met with immediate family members but did not have a spiritual adviser, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

The families of those killed were ready for execution day.

Cheryll Witz was one of several victims' relatives who planned to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that, at Muhammad's direction, he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002.

"He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," Witz said. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?"

Death penalty opponents planned vigils across the state, and some were headed for Jarratt, about an hour south of Richmond, for the execution at Greensville Correctional Center.

Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said those who planned to protest understand the fear that gripped the community, and the nation, during the attacks.

"The greater metro area and the citizens of Virginia have been safe from this crime for seven years," Panilaitis said. "Incarceration has worked and life without the possibility of parole has and will continue to keep the people of Virginia safe."

Kaine, Virginia's first Roman Catholic governor, has openly expressed his faith-based opposition to capital punishment, but promised as a candidate in 2005 that he would carry out Virginia's death penalty law despite his beliefs.

In September, Kaine delayed the October execution of a former Army intelligence worker from Maryland convicted of killing a northern Virginia couple, saying he needed more time to consider the case. That execution is scheduled for next week.

[stryker54]

They should put all this scum like him on a remote island where they have to survive with cohorts like them. Give them nothing, food, water, nothing but their own survival skills to make it. Give them a horrendous life till one of their own takes them out. Quit using taxpayer money to support their appeals and medical while they wait to be condemed to die. Or just take a nice day, strap them to a chair and start shooting every body part to let him know the pain. After a day or 2 hit him in the head with a nice hollow point never letting him know it was coming. Lethal injection was too good for this scum and the others on death row.

[dwilson59]

This is just wrong we should let him stay in prison and with proper care he can become an upstanding citizen in 1 to 2 years. The Military and George Bush is to blame for this. Dick Chaney should should also be there. This is just more people that are going after Islam the religion of peace.

[stryker54]

Your so right! And my A$$ is a banjo.

[Meg_Girl]

I really hope this is meant to be sarcastic...that is funny!

[french_hillbilly]

Eternity -Smoking or Non-Smoking, he made his choice with the first shot. Burn baby burn!

[armyoftwelve]

Good riddance!


Ay-h0les like this make it hard to argue against capital punishment.

[BlueDogDem]

Very few people I can think of deserve the death penalty more than this monster. Lethal injection is too humane for him. Too bad they can't warm up the electric chair this one time or better yet, construct a gallow.

Before he dies, I hope they'll play the 911 tape of Linda Franklin's husband calling for help after that bastard murdered his wife.

[sopheapang]

I couldn't believe that it takes so long to get rid of this piece of zhit. America definitely needs to learn a lesson or two from China. Will the execution be shown on TV? I love seeing this piece of zhit gets executed. I would even record the execution on my DVR. Actually, if I was the judge, I would let the victims families to carry out the execution. Anyway, let's celebrate!

[nobodys-fool]

I joined all who lived in fear during this time. Not until he was caught did I find out the 1st victim was shot & survived in my own neighborhood. I lived and worked witin a city block of the crime & his exwife. Killing this scum is the only way to get justice. GOOD RIDDINS

[nobodys-fool]

I joined all who lived in fear during this time. Not until he was caught did I find out the 1st victim was shot & survived in my own neighborhood. I lived and worked witin a city block of the crime & his exwife. Killing this scum is the only way to get justice. GOOD RIDDINS

[Disinfectant]

In just a few minutes real justice will be served. I sure hope that didn't offend any "peaceful" liberals out there. But if it did, GOOD!

[ubrew12]

I am very much a peaceful liberal, and I think the death penalty should PROBABLY be outlawed in this country (mostly because certain states seem to be executing people who were later found to be innocent).

Assuming John Muhammed committed these crimes (and I'm certain he did) then I'm glad he's dying for them. In fact, I would be the first to shoot him, personally, for having committed them. Furthermore, we need to see more and hear more about the lives he took from us. They are the TRUE victims in all this. I'm tired of see photos of the criminal. Negating the human-ness of his victims was the primary reason he killed them, and in ignoring them and focusing on him, the media gives him EXACTLY what he wanted.

It doesn't change the fact that capital punishment may not be the best way of going about punishing these criminals, as other countries have determined. Rotting in prison may be a better way to deal with them, and circumcribe the potential of having killed someone who didn't deserve it. But, for confessed mass murderers like Muhammed, I'd kill them myself given the chance. And forget I did so 30 seconds later. We need to remember the VICTIMS in this country, not the criminals.

May he rot in Hell.

[fedup12]

1 down a whole bunch to go.

[pensacola8-2009]

When he gets his lethal injection, it will be all over for him and he will be in peace. Some of us will never feel peaceful or forgive him. It seems that he got the better end of the deal.

For those posters who are angry...anger is what drove this man to become violent and kill. The world has enough of it and doesn't need more.

Try to find the good where ever you can and be peaceful. I would rather follow the peaceful leaders than the angry one.

I don't advocate for the death penalty and feel the convicted offender still got the better end of the deal. He got years to find his peace and go peacefully under our hands. There is something about strapping a peaceful man to a bed and killing him that just doesn't appeal to my idea about civilization, but I accept that man loves to play God and kill for his own reasons, in spite of his flaws. ...a modern way to burn witches at the stake.

[pluckerup]

They are strapping a peaceful man to a bed to kill him because he killed 10 people for no reason. I would rather see him burn at the stake.

[wdh3007]

The Fort Hood shooter should be forced to watch closely becuase he will be next him and all his muslim rogue cohorts this should be an example for all who hate America and wish death upon it.

[dwilson59]

wdh3007

They are just misunderstood. How do we know if the gun did not go off accidentally? Should we believe the FBI or the CIA? They all work for Bush and Chaney.

[jgg000015]

"just misunderstood" - "the gun went off accidentally" hahahaha
yea, the gun went off accidentally 10X while he was hiding in his car and the bullets miraculously exited through the hole he cut in the trunk. Congrats for working Bush and Cheney into your response, too.
If I didn't see it for myself, I wouldn't have believed it!

[dwilson59]

This is just wrong we should let him stay in prison and with proper care he can become an upstanding citizen in 1 to 2 years. The Military and George Bush is to blame for this. Dick Chaney should should also be there. This is just more people that are going after Islam the religion of peace.

[slownewsday-05]

"This is just more people that are going after Islam the religion of peace"


Yeah, just like the Christian's peaceful books of the bible.... so many instructions to murder your neighbor's entire village if they are unbelievers.

Deuteronomy is such a great read!

.

[nobodys-fool]

The religion of peace???? You have got to be insane? It thrives on murder.....what an idiot!!!!

[nowhiningallowed]

One less criminal to worry about. Too bad his accomplice won't be joining. Let's never forget the victims. The criminals mean absolutely nothing.

[ubrew12]

Well said. Those who worry excessively over the killers commit the crime of forgetting the victims. Those victims ask for justice.

Intellectually, the advisability of the 'death penalty' as a form of punishment in this country is certainly up for debate. Evidence has shown repeatedly that its horrifically expensive, and still prone for error (i.e. sometimes we end up killing people who weren't actually deserving of it). But, there's no question that a convicted and clearly responsible multiple killer like this guy deserves to die or, if we decide as a nation otherwise, life in prison. Either way, he's undeserving of our attention (certainly not a full photo showing his large, repentant eyes). Our attention needs to be on the victims, lest we commit the crime too often commited in our legal system of deciding that they are 'non-people' by virture of being already dead. Such a determination essentially conmposes society giving the killer exactly what he wanted: to be measured a MAN far in excess of his victim. Thats bvllsh*t.

[T-Fed]

Die horribly and burn in hell you piece of human garbage. All you forgivers would probably feel differently if he had shot and killed your loved ones while concealed in his car's trunk and they had done noting to deserve it like mow their front lawn, shop at a Home Depot, fill up their car with gasoline, etc....

[SS_433]

Something aside from the ethics of execution:
The criminal himself may be regarded as 'evidence'. The criminal may know things law enforcement won't ever know if he is destroyed along with his knowledge.

[stryker54]

So what, the man killed people and would do it again if given the chance.

[Justme8811]

Hey, Hey, Hey......GOODBYE!!!!!

[Justme8811]

Hey, Hey, Hey......GOODBYE!!!!!

[ll2owt]

while we are at it...how about bush, cheeeeny., etc. (over 4000)

[ll2owt]

while we are at it...how about bush, cheeeeny., etc. (over 4000)

[rjdeb]

Yay!!! finally justice will be served, it only took our judicial system about 7 years to pull it off, (and probably millions of taxpayer dollars). Now if they could do the same for George Banks, his trial has been goin' for at least 20 years.