vc318

Virginia executes John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of 2002 D.C.-area attacks that killed 10 -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Virginia executes John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of 2002 D.C.-area attacks that killed 10

ARRATT, Va. (AP) — John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind of the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation's capital region for three weeks in October 2002, was executed Tuesday. Muhammad died by injection at 9:11 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, prison spokesman Larry Traylor said.

He said Muhammad had no final statement and that Traylor didn't hear him utter any words during the execution.

Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during a spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

"We extend our condolences not only to the families and loved ones of the victims, but also to the family and loved ones of John Allen Muhammad," said J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys. "It's just a tragic situation all around."

Earlier, Gordon had described Muhammad as fearless and insisted he was innocent.

"He is absolutely unafraid and he will die with dignity — dignity to the point of defiance," Gordon said.

The shootings terrorized the region, as victim after victim was shot down while doing everyday chores: going shopping, pumping gas, mowing the lawn. One child was shot while walking into his middle school.

People stayed indoors. Those who did go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves a less easy target.

The reign of terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted for a shooter to perch in its trunk without being detected.

Muhammad and Malvo also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad's final appeal Monday and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied clemency Tuesday.

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

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

Muhammad met with family members in the hours before his execution but did not have a spiritual adviser, Traylor said.

Creepy that he died at 9:11 p.m. EST.

sunnykerr

Well, of course he's not afraid to die. That's one of the reasons why the death penalty is completely idiotic. There is nothing to fear about death, especially not when you have these extreme views of things.

It would have been a better punishment to have him live with the consequences of his actions and live out his days with the regret.

TheAngel

But people like that don't live with the consequences of their actions either. I mean, seriously, the guy probably had no remorse and didn't think he had done anything wrong. He was perfectly content with what he had done. At least they executed him quickly. In his case it probably was cheaper to execute him, and to be honest, when it comes to people like him, all I care about is expense to taxpayers. He forfeited his humanity long ago.

sunnykerr

Well, he's dead now, so obviously we'll never know if he would have ever understood what he did.

Personally, I think the notion that any human being can forfeit their right to live, whatever they do, is troublesome. Because that means some of us get to decide when another person has done so. And, to me, that's what murderers do. Murderers take away the lives of people they obviously can't see as fully sentient human beings, worthy of breath and joy and human experience.

So, when the state, any state, decides that there's a point where a person has done X, Y or Z and has therefore renounced their right to live or to be called human... I find that creepy beyond the telling of it.

Again, personally, I also think that getting between a person, even a monster who has committed the evilest of crimes, and their "right" (obviously, not an enshrined one) to deal with the consequences of their actions, in whatever form that takes, and to make things right between themselves and God (there you have it, a lot of my stance on capital punishment comes from a spiritual place, which is I why I totally get and accept and respect the fact that not everyone is gonna agree with me) before they die? I think that's wrong on the most profound of levels.

Mind you, I say that and I understand the rational arguments for saving taxpayers' money (I don't, for one second of a minute, buy that it acts as a deterrent). And, as I do believe that law should be secular and not be governed by anyone's religious beliefs, that's something I can accept to a certain degree. Many countries don't have the death penalty. You're not going to convince me that whatever deficit they may have in their budget is due to their refusal to murder criminals.

vc318

Even though he was imprisoned for seven years, I thought his execution was pretty swift. I guess his accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo should be happy that he didn't suffer the same fate but then again being in jail the rest of your life really doesn't sound any better.

sunnykerr

Lee Boyd Malvo was 17 when the crimes were committed. Under the 8th Amendment, he cannot be executed for his crimes because they were committed when he was younger than 18.

Mind you, if Virginia succeeds in getting him extradited there... they've executed people who've committed their crimes while under the age of 18, so that may still come to pass.

Although I was under the impression that it was generally accepted that John Allen Muhammad had pretty much brainwashed him, so maybe that'll play in his favour.

vc318

It's very weird considering that Boyd was told that if they killed some people then they could use the extortion money to help this group of people in another country or something like that. Yeah, he was misled but he agreed to participate in the killing of innocent people.

sunnykerr

You seem to know more about this than I do.

I thought Malvo was an orphan who had been "taken in" by Muhammad, who had "educated" the boy in his lunacy and, somewhere between being deeply impressionable and the whole pseudo-Stockhold syndrome thing of a kid wanting to please the closest thing he'd had to a father figure, something akin to brainwashing had occured.

vc318

No, it was just mostly information that I gathered online about him but there wasn't any mention of him being taken in by Muhammed.

sunnykerr

Well, there you go. That's more than I know right there.

All I have is one of those 20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes program where they talked to psychologists and went back to Jamaica to talk to people who knew the kid before he met JAM.

Comfortably Numb

I never understood why it took so long to execute someone..

sunnykerr

And I never understood why it's okay to execute anyone.

Comfortably Numb

LOL - I just meant I never understood why it took so long after a trial to execute someone. People wait years on death row. I am from Canada, we don't have it here.

So you are against the death penalty?

sunnykerr

I am indeed against the death penalty. I have a whole plethora of reasons why, some more rational than others...

But sometimes, like I said, on another thread, it's not black and white.

Comfortably Numb

It's a very emotional issue.