Kaine won’t halt sniper Muhammad’s execution
By: Violeta Ikonomova
Examiner Staff Writer
November 10, 2009
 |
| (AP Photo/Virginia Department of Corrections) |
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he won't stop Tuesday night’s scheduled execution of convicted Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad.
The governor denied clemency for Muhammad, clearing the way for a 9 p.m. execution by lethal injection at Greensville Correctional Center.
“I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts,” said Kaine. “Accordingly, I decline to intervene.”
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Muhammad’s appeal.
For three weeks in the fall of 2002, Muhammad and his young ward, Lee Boyd Malvo, paralyzed the Washington region with a series of sniper attacks. By the time the pair was finished, 10 people were dead and three were wounded. Muhammad is scheduled to die for the shooting of Dean Harold Meyers, who was killed while trying to gas up his car in Manassas.
After a near-fatal robbery of a pizzeria owner in Prince George's County, Muhammad and Malvo went south. Authorities say they robbed a liquor store in Alabama, killing a store clerk and wounding another, and then drove themselves back to the D.C. area.
Beginning on Oct. 2, 2002, they randomly picked out people to die.
The terror of the attacks made people prisoners in their own homes. Few dared to venture outside, recesses and outdoor events were canceled, and parents raced to pick up their kids. Customers ducked while pumping gas and dodged and weaved while walking down the street.
Authorities were convinced that their prey wanted to die in a blaze of glory. Instead, they were found napping in their car in a rest stop.
Malvo, then 17, was convicted of capital murder in Virginia and sentenced to life in prison.
In a separate Virginia trial, Muhammad was convicted of capital murder on Nov. 17, 2003 and sentenced to death. He was later convicted of six additional counts of capital murder in Maryland.
Muhammad's lawyer has claimed that his client wasn't mentally competent to stand trial.
Bob Meyers, brother of victim Dean Meyers, told The Examiner that he and his wife have accepted an invitation to Muhammad’s execution.
“One thing that’s obvious is that if there ever was a capital case, this would be one,” Meyers said.
