John Allen Muhammad put to death

JARRATT — John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 people and terrorized the Washington area, was put to death Tuesday night.

Muhammad, 48, died by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:11 p.m.

“Once he was strapped down he was watching and looking around,” Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said. “Once IVs were administered … he was lying down, head tilted slightly to the right and eyes closed. We asked him for a last statement. He did not even look at us or respond to us.”

He looked calm and stoic, but was twitching and blinking as the injections began, defiant to the end, refusing to utter any final words, the Associated Press reported. 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 put Muhammad on death row.

Muhammad, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and flip-flops, had no final statement.

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's 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 on CNN's "Larry King Live."

In the hours before his execution, Muhammad met with his immediate family members and his attorneys, Traylor said. His attorney said he had a last meal of chicken and red sauce.

In a letter his attorneys released the week before his execution, Muhammad called himself “an innocent black man” and said he wasn’t guilty of the crime.

Muhammad was convicted of capital murder for shooting 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers on Oct. 9, 2002.

Meyers, a Vietnam veteran and Gaithersburg, Md., resident was pumping gas at a Sunoco station in the Manassas area when he was killed.

In the weeks leading up to Muhammad’s execution, his attorneys asked Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and stop the execution.

In the Supreme Court appeal, Muhammad’s attorney Jon Sheldon said that Muhammad is mentally ill.

Sheldon said that evidence was not presented to the jury who recommended the death penalty.

After the execution, Sheldon issued the following statement:

"The execution of John Muhammad will raise a lot of different feelings for the families devastated by the tragic shootings of September & October 2002-and for the broader community effected by those crimes. We deeply sympathize with the families and loved ones who have to relive the pain and loss of those terrible days.

"My (Jon Sheldon's) sympathies also extend to the children and family of John Muhammad, who, with humilty and self-consciousness, today lost a father and member of their family.

"To all those families and the countless citizens across the country who bore witness, and continue to do so, to those tragic events-we renew our condolences and offer our prayers for a better future."

Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were convicted of killing 10 people and injuring three others during a shooting spree that spanned the Washington region, including shootings in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia during October 2002.

The shooting spree started in Wheaton, Md., on Oct. 2, 2002.

On Oct. 24, 2002, Muhammad and Malvo were arrested after police found them sleeping in their car at a Maryland rest stop.

Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, has been sentenced to life in prison.

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?''

At Greensville on Tuesday, dozens of television stations and other news crews were stationed outside the gates, waiting for word of Muhammad’s execution.

In a field near the prison, some gathered for a vigil protesting the execution.

“These murders were senseless tragedies and our sympathies are with the victims and their families as well as the whole community that experienced that fear,” Beth Panilaitis, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said in a statement. “The greater metro area and the citizens of Virginia have been safe from this crime for 7 years. Incarceration has worked and life without the possibility of parole has and will continue to keep the people of Virginia safe.“

The parents of one of the men killed during the sniper shootings sat inside a car in a field outside the prison Tuesday night.

Sonia Hollingsworth Wills, said her son, 35-year-old Conrad Johnson was shot and killed on Oct. 22 while standing outside of his Ride On bus, in Aspen Hill, Md.

As their son’s shooter was executed, Wills and her husband sat in their car, watching rain drizzle down on the field around them.

Muhammad is the second person executed in Virginia this year.

Edward Nathaniel Bell was executed Feb. 19 for shooting Winchester police officer Sgt. Ricky Timbrook on Oct. 29, 1999.

Paul Powell was scheduled to be executed in July for killing 16-year-old Stacie Reed in the Yorkshire area of Prince William County in 1999, but the Supreme Court intervened and temporarily stayed the execution.

Larry Bill Elliot, convicted of the Jan. 2, 2001, deaths of 25-year-old Dana Thrall and 30-year-old Robert Finch in Woodbridge, is scheduled to die by electrocution Nov. 17.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.

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