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 12:55 a.m. EST

John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that left 10 dead, was executed as relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks in October 2002.

The 48-year-old Muhammad looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking, tapping his left foot as the injections began, defiant to the end, refusing to utter any final words. Victims' families sat behind glass while watching, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses, who were quiet, looking straight forward, intent on what was happening.

"He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims," said Prince William County prosecutor Paul Ebert, who witnessed Muhammad die by injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond.

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 think crimes that are this horrible, you just can't understand them, you can't explain them," said Kaine, a Democrat known for carefully considering death penalty cases. "They completely dwarf your ability to look into the life of a person who would do something like this and understand why."

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.

Bob Meyers, whose brother was fatally shot at a Virginia gas station, was among the witnesses. He said watching the execution was sobering and "surreal."

"I would have liked him at some point in the process to take responsibility, to show remorse," Meyers said. "We didn't get any of that tonight."

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

Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station, said that when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad.

"I feel better. I think I can breathe better and I'm happy he's gone because he's not going to hurt anyone else," he said.

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 before Muhammad's execution Tuesday.

"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."

Before the execution, he said he had 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?"

A small group of death penalty opponents gathered on a grassy area near the prison and had a sign reading, "We remember the victims, but not with more killing."

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."

Sonia Hollingsworth-Wills, the mother of Conrad Johnson, the last man slain that October, sat in the back seat of a car outside the prison before the execution, which she chose not to witness. But she said she wanted to be there and was counting the minutes until Muhammad's death.

"It was the most horrifying day of my life," she said. "I'll never get complete closure but at least I can put this behind me."

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.

[rf35]

"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."

Yes, but it will cost the taxpayers a lot of money. Capital punishment, if carried out within a reasonable time after conviction, is a great money-saving punishment. It also prevents one more body crowding the prison system. My feeling is one trial, one automatic appeal, and, barring extraordinary circumstances, death to follow no later than one week after if the conviction is upheld. It was such a waste of money to feed and shelter this animal for 7 years...and that's far less time than most death-row convicts wait. Sad.

[Oregon_State_OSU]

Wow:

7 years from the Crime to being Executed that was Quick.

[Dunestrider]

While I say "good riddance" to the perp, I will never understand why relatives of the victims will want to view the execution. Is the execution an act of vengeance or an act of justice? There is a difference.

[Skruffy1]

Though I'm ordinarily not an enthusiastic supporter of capital punishment (as long as there is any chance of wrongful convictions), in this creep's case, I had no qualms. But I'd rather have seen him given a car with an almost-empty gas tank (the one he used in the killings perhaps), make him go to different gas stations to pump a few gallons at each... but at one station (he would know it was coming but he wouldn't know at which gas stop) there'd be a sniper lurking to perforate him with a rifle bullet. Then he could experience some of the terror he inflicted. G'byeeee, John.

[watchdogtexas]

Good bye, and get a room ready for Hasan.

[GTR5]

My, some good news for a change.

[scubbasteve01]

He got what was coming to him. I'm glad he's dead. He goes off like the madman that he was killing people and then has the nerve to ask for mercy? Those people weren't given mercy when you decided to shoot them to death and here you are still in denial not taking responsibility for your actions?
Have fun in that fire and brimstone you idiot. BURN in it FOREVER.

[clydealan2]

We have stooped to his level with justified killing. Look, either we value human life or we do not. Did he? Of course not. Do we? Yes, sometimes. But with religious and moral values there can be no "sometimes". Our statement to the world, and to our children, is this; killing is ok when it is justified. That message spills beyond our orderly world of laws into twisted minds and desperate souls. I believe we are better then that and at some point in the future we will change our message.

[snaptrap1-2009]

i bet that if you had seen this same guy on the street, that you wouldn't even gave him the time of day, and if you did, he could have taking your life...he wouldn't have care about you or yours...

[petesis]

To hell with him. It is a christian fallacy that all human life is worth something, or is sacred. And since christians are no slouches in violating their own tenets, I cannot understand those that think this guy should have been spared. What does he have had to do for you to think the Death penalty is appropriate? You people that are against the death penalty, you need to grow up. Not every human life is of equal value. Some in fact are a negative. This guy killed multiple people. You people against the death penalty are on the wrong side of this one. This guy deserved it in spades. I only wish it would have hurt more.

[saturn05]

Why is it some killers get put to death while others sit on death row alive for 20 years??

[MPHgrad]

For perspective, China has the highest death penalty rate of any reporting nation and a crime rate of 4.75 million with a population of 1.3 billion according to amnesty USA & reuters. Of the 4.75 million crimes committed, 3.7 million are comprised of theft, robbery, & burglary; homicides are not nearly as significant per capita as they are in the US.
Capital punishment isn't effective here as a deterrent because there are years and sometimes decades of appeals. Who is afraid of that? For those against the death penalty, fine, have the criminal do time in your neighborhood, in your back yard building your fence as his punishment for murdering or raping someone. As for me, I firmly believe the guilty (murders & rapists) should be taken immediately upon conviction to be hanged, stoned, or put in front of a firing squad for proper execution.

I don't want them in or around my neighborhood ever again. Look at the man in TX caught only recently for his 1983 rape of a young girl after DNA evidence from a 1994 rape conviction, & he recently raped again. These people do these things again and again. Had he been executed in 1994, the other victims, both known & unknown would have been spared. So again, for those against capital punishment, please open your arms, neighborhoods, and rehabilitative services to the rapists and murders the rest of us would rather live without.

[rplat]

Good riddance . . . now, can we never again hear or see his name in print?

[fss2009]

A bunch of hateful, vengeful idiots are now complicit in another mans murder. May they never sleep again without nightmares. May they all burn in H*ll alongside the condemned.

[petesis]

What is wrong with doing away with this animal? You are just a coward, who is afraid to say that some need killing. I am sorry but you really should examine that. This guy was a mass cold blooded murderer. A cowardly thief of life. You can lose sleep over him if you want to. I think it is pathetic. And I am a fairly liberal individual.

[workerdroid]

Garbage taken out. Next topic....

[bomtibom]

Does deathpenalty prvent crime ?

No.

US has the worlds HIGHEST murderrate. By Far.

I can understand that people needs revenge, so let's just call it that.

But the fact that they sit and watch a person die, is sick. just sick.
Who would go to an execution ?? Only people with sick minds would freely go and watch some person get killed on purpose.

Do you really think that watching a human being die, will make your mental health any better ???

Its sick and it wil make you sicker!!

[Dgunner]

THE MAN DIED TOO SLOW!iF THIS GOVT. HAD ANY GUTS ABOUT THEM THEY WOULD CONTRACT THE EXECUTIONS OF THESE SUBHUMANS.PERHAPS YOU MAY THINK THAT OF ME.I ASSURE YOU THE MAN WOULD HAVE BEGGED FOR THE SWEET PEACE OF DEATH TO COME TO HIM AFTER A COUPLE WEEKS WITH ME.

[enough-already]

Easy for YOU to say that, but I'll bet you'd change your tune if someone YOU loved was murdered by a total stranger for no reason. Personally, I'd want to be the guy who pushed the plunger on the syringe to execute the SOB.

[snaptrap1-2009]

Does death penalty prevent crime ?
it sure does, this guy is never going to murder again...

[p94932]

im glad your dead

[PaGuy1960]

It just never fails. One of you always manages to get Bush or Obama involved in every post. Give it a rest.. It's pathetic.

[Vet_Turner]

I am usually against the death penalty but it was designed for the makes of this piece of crap. I hope his son lives a long life in the worse prison we have without hope.

[AOCGUY]

You can't be sort of against the death penalty. It is either an effective means to deal with the most heinous crimes or it is not - no gray area here. One should also not be confused with our motivation. Capital punishment does not deter capital crimes. If it did states like Florida and Texas would have lower murder rates than do staes without capital punishment. So I have to assume that waht we are really doing is seeking vengence. No one is better off today than they were yesterday because Muhammad is dead. We are not safer either since had Muhammad been sentenced as was accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo to life, he would have never seen the outside of that prison again and therefore posed no danger to society.

And by the way, Malvo, was his accomplice not his son and I have no doubt that Malvo will suffer far more tha Muhammad.

[pete_in_az]

AOCGUY - Spot on mate.

[tdentino]

Rot ***** !

[Bayou123]

You are right legacyABQ2 nothing will change about the lives he destroyed. Death is not reversible. I know how it fills for a loved one to leave home for a day and never be able to come back. It's something that is never forgotten. It's something that tears people's hearts to shreads everyday. People grasp for whatever comfort they can find. I feel for the families that he tore apart. There will be no peace for some of them. Muhammad will never pay enough for what he has done, on this earth. The rest of his sentence will have to be paid by the rath of God.

[legacyABQ2]

Yeah.. I guess so..