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Darick Lane (background) and son Desmond Lane of Richmond hold candles outside the prison 'protesting his execution and remembering the victims.'
Family members of sniper John Allen Muhammad pray outside Greenville Correctional Center at the scheduled time of Muhammad's execution last night.
A van carrying the body of Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad leaves the Greensville Correctional Center. |
JARRETT--
John Allen Muhammad was put to death last night, without giving the apology some of his victims' relatives wanted to hear.In fact, the 48-year-old Muhammad said nothing before receiving a lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center.
Muhammad was executed for masterminding the shooting spree that caused fear throughout the Washington region in the fall of 2002. Two shootings occurred in Spotsylvania County.
Ten people were killed and three others were wounded in the October shootings carried out by Muhammad and Lee Malvo, who at the time was a 17-year-old boy. Malvo is serving life in prison.
Yesterday, dozens and dozens of reporters and satellite trucks began pouring into the
prison complex about 4 p.m. and were still there shortly after 9, when Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor came out and announced that Muhammad was dead.
Many were from the Washington and Maryland areas, where most of the shootings took place, but there were plenty from other areas. A slight rain fell much of the night.
Those who witnessed the death said Muhammad "staggered" into the execution room at 8:58 p.m. wearing a denim shirt and pants and flip-flops. He was accompanied by six officers and was strapped to a gurney. A curtain was closed as IV lines were inserted in Muhammad's arms.
The curtain was soon reopened and at 9:06 p.m., Muhammad was asked if he had any last words. He said nothing, and the chemicals began entering his body. At 9:11 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Muhammad actually received the death penalty for the slaying of Dean Meyers in Prince William County, but all of the victims were remembered during yesterday's proceedings. Two of the shootings occurred in Spotsylvania County, including the fatal shooting of Kenneth Bridges as he pumped gas in the Four-Mile Fork area.
Muhammad's last day included visits from his son from his first marriage and his lawyers. His former wife also was outside the prison, but did not get in to visit him.
His final meal consisted of chicken and what one of his lawyers described only as "red sauce."
J. Wyndal Gordon, who served as Muhammad's standby lawyer in his Maryland trial, insisted that the state was killing an innocent man. He contended that there was a lot of evidence that would have exonerated Muhammad that was kept from his lawyers and the public. He mentioned without elaborating that there were suspects in Stafford County.
"The truth will eventually come out," Gordon said a fews hours before the execution. "Unfortunately, Mr. Muhammad will be dead by then."
Gordon described Muhammad as "fearless and dignified" in the hours before his death. He said Muhammad was sorry for the victims families but was not responsible for the slayings.
In contrast to another one of Muhammad's lawyers, Gordon said he did not detect any mental deficiencies in Muhammad and scoffed at reports that he was suffering from his service in the Gulf War.
A little more than an hour before the execution, death penalty opponents began showing up at a field a couple of hundred yards away from where the media horde was assembled. A vigil was held in which sympathy was expressed for the victims and Muhammad.
Steve Northup of Richmond, a member of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said no one disputes that what Muhammad and Malvo did was "horrible" and Northup said he respects the opinions of those who favor the death penalty.
"But this simply is not something the state should be involved with," Northup said. "We can feel safe without resorting to killing someone."
Traylor, the corrections spokesman, spent much of the evening patiently answering media questions and repeatedly explaining the process.
He said this was the 360th execution in Virginia's history and the 75th by lethal injection. He added that the media turnout yesterday was by far the largest for any execution.
Muhammad's body was taken to the medical examiner's office in Richmond for an autopsy.
Muhammad, 48, exhausted his court appeals and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine earlier in the day rejected his plea for clemency.
Muhammad's attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they said he was severely mentally ill.
"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."
Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to put Muhammad and Malvo on trial in Virginia first because of the state's record of executing killers. They also were 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.
The motive for the shootings in the nation's capital region remains unknown.
Muhammad has never testified or explained his motives.
People at the time of the shootings 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.
--The Associated Press also provided information for this story.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com
