Nov 11, 2009 12:23 pm US/Eastern
Sniper John Allen Muhammad Executed
RICHMOND, Va. (WJZ/AP) ―
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John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday.
WJZ
Family members of the sniper victims are satisfied and relieved. John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind of the sniper attacks that terrorized Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, was executed Tuesday night.
Vic Carter is leading WJZ coverage of the execution from Virginia.
Relatives of the victims watched, reliving the killing spree that terrorized the Washington metro area for three weeks in October 2002.
Muhammad, 48, looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking as the injections began, defiant to the end, refusing to utter any final words.
After the first of the three-drug lethal cocktail was administered, Muhammad blinked repeatedly and took about seven deep breaths. Within a minute, he was motionless.
Victims' families sat behind glass while watching the execution, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses.
"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. at Greensville Correctional Center, south of Richmond. Muhammad, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and flip-flops, had no final statement.
Muhammad was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot in the head at a Manassas gas station during the three-week spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was gunned down as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station said 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.
Dean Meyers' brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was a point of closure, but that he was "overcome by the sadness that the whole situation generates in my heart."
"Honestly it was surreal. Watching the life being sapped out of somebody intentionally was very different," he said. "I would have liked him at some point in the process to take responsibility, to show remorse. We didn't get any of that tonight."
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.
"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."
J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent.
"He will die with dignity -- dignity to the point of defiance," Gordon said.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine denied John Allen Muhammad's clemency request Tuesday. The Supreme Court refused to consider Muhammad's appeal Monday.
Muhammad's attorneys had asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill.
"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."
Muhammad reportedly spent the day meeting with immediate family. He did not have a spiritual adviser.
"His mood is very strong. He understands that death is impending, but he's not focused on that at this time. He's focusing on his family, his children," Gordon said in an exclusive interview with
Vic Carter. "He has no regrets. In fact, he said he wouldn't change a thing."
Gordon said that Muhammad maintained his innocence and had a request.
"The only thing he's holding me responsible for is that when his children want to know the real story, that I tell them and that I direct them to another individual who can complete the story," Gordon said.
Gordon says he believes there is plenty of reasonable doubt in the cases.
The 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 so a shooter could hide in the trunk and fire through a hole in the body of the vehicle.
Malvo, who was 17 when carrying out the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old FBI analyst who was shot as she and her husband loaded supplies at a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va.
The pair was also suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.
Muhammad never testified or explained why he masterminded the
shootings with the help of Malvo. That left questions unanswered about why he methodically hunted people going about their daily chores, why he chose his victims, including a middle schooler on his way to class, and how many victims there were.
That means the motive for the shootings remains murky until this day. 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.
A defense psychologist linked mental illness to Muhammad's service in the Gulf War.
"He returned from the Gulf War with splitting headaches that he hadn't had before, accompanied by disorientation and other symptoms," said Mark Cunningham.
Family members say they will take Muhammad's body back to Baton Rouge, where they will hold a private funeral.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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