Sniper John Muhammad executed

UPDATE: JARRATT — John Allen Muhammad, 48, the leader of a two-man shooting team that kept the region in fear through much of October 2002, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. in Virginia’s death house at Greensville Correctional Center.

Muhammad was sentenced to die for the Oct. 9, 2002, slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, a civil engineer shot in the head at a Prince William County gas station where he had stopped on his way home from work.

Given the chance to make a last statement, Muhammad stared stoically at the ceiling and did not move a muscle. No spiritual adviser was present.

“He did not even look at us or acknowledge us,” said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

At 8:58 p.m., Muhammad was led into the execution chamber. He was clean-shaven, dressed in blue denim prison clothing, an execution-team member at each side. He appeared to stumble a bit, looking down and then toward the gurney.

He was quickly led to the gurney, and his arms, legs and torso were secured with leather and nylon straps.

At 9 p.m., the team members stepped back from the gurney and a curtain was drawn, blocking the witnesses’ view as IV lines were inserted in Muhammad’s arms and the leads to a heart monitor were affixed to his chest.

The curtains were reopened at 9:06 p.m., and Muhammad was asked whether he wanted to make a last statement.

At 9:07 p.m., the first of three chemicals used to execute him appeared to be moving through the IV lines. He took several deep breaths, which grew shallower; by 9:08 p.m., his breathing appeared to have stopped.

There were no complications during the execution, Traylor said.

Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert was among the more than two dozen witnesses. Speaking to the media afterward, he said he found the execution somewhat anticlimactic, and he noted that Muhammad died much more peacefully than some of his victims.

What follows is coverage of Muhammad’s final day:

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has declined to intervene and stop tonight’s scheduled execution of John Allen Muhammad.

“Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, 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 in a prepared statement

Muhammad, 48, was sentenced to die for the Oct. 9, 2002, slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, who was shot at a Manassas-area gasoline station, one of 10 people killed and three wounded by Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo.

Malvo, 17 at the time of the shootings, escaped a death sentence and is serving life without parole. The execution by injection is set for 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt.

Though there were 13 “sniper” victims in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, the two are believed also responsible for slayings in other states.

An undisclosed number of family members of the victims will witness the execution. According to media accounts, some area traveling from as far as Idaho and Alabama.

Jonathan Sheldon, one of Muhammad’s lawyers, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court and Kaine turned down his client.

“We respect their decisions and will make no more legal efforts to stop this process from going forward,“ he said.

Echoing a comment he made yesterday, Sheldon said, “In its effort to race John Allen Muhammad to his death before his appeals could be pursued, the state of Virginia will execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day.“

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said that at about 2:30 p.m. Muhammad was meeting with immediate family members and that he does not have a spiritual adviser.  Muhammad’s attorneys are planning to meet with him later this afternoon, said Traylor.