Infamous gunman executed, stays silent
Source: Agencies |
November 12, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
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SNIPER John Allen Muhammad refused to utter any last words as he was executed, taking to the grave answers about why and how he plotted the killings of 10 people that terrorized the Washington, DC area for three weeks in October 2002.
He died by injection at 9:11pm on Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched from behind glass, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses at Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia.
Muhammad, 48, was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot at a Manassas gas station during the spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
He never testified or explained why he masterminded the shootings with the help of a teenage accomplice.
That left questions unanswered about why he hunted people going about their daily chores, why he chose his victims, including a middle-school pupil, and how many victims there were.
Muhammad stepped into Virginia's death chamber and within seconds was lying on a gurney, tapping his left foot, his arms spread wide with a needle dug into each.
"Mr Muhammad, do you have any last words?" the warden asked. Muhammad, looking calm, said nothing.
Meyers' brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was sobering and "surreal." He said other witnesses expressed a range of feelings, including some overcome with emotion.
"I would have liked him at some point ... to take responsibility, to show remorse," Meyers said. "We didn't get any of that tonight."
Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was shot as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station, said that when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad.
J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent.
He died by injection at 9:11pm on Tuesday as relatives of the victims watched from behind glass, separated from the rest of the 27 witnesses at Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia.
Muhammad, 48, was executed for killing Dean Harold Meyers, who was shot at a Manassas gas station during the spree across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
He never testified or explained why he masterminded the shootings with the help of a teenage accomplice.
That left questions unanswered about why he hunted people going about their daily chores, why he chose his victims, including a middle-school pupil, and how many victims there were.
Muhammad stepped into Virginia's death chamber and within seconds was lying on a gurney, tapping his left foot, his arms spread wide with a needle dug into each.
"Mr Muhammad, do you have any last words?" the warden asked. Muhammad, looking calm, said nothing.
Meyers' brother, Bob Meyers, said watching the execution was sobering and "surreal." He said other witnesses expressed a range of feelings, including some overcome with emotion.
"I would have liked him at some point ... to take responsibility, to show remorse," Meyers said. "We didn't get any of that tonight."
Nelson Rivera, whose wife, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, was shot as she vacuumed her van at a Maryland gas station, said that when he watched Muhammad's chest moving for the last time, he was glad.
J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Muhammad's attorneys, described his client in his final hours as fearless and still insisting he was innocent.
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