Sniper JoHn Allen executed

Savannah Brandenburg
post #6
Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday by lethal injection, a Virginia prisons.The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said."After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless," Traylor said."He didn't say anything. At 9:07 you could see him twitch a lot. You could see him blinking a lot. You could see his breathing increase." After about seven deep breaths, at 9:08 p.m., he lay motionless, Burkett said.Three minutes later, a physician working for the Department of Corrections pronounced him dead.In a statement read on behalf of the lawyers for and family of Muhammad, defense lawyer Jon Sheldon said, "We deeply sympathize with the families and loved ones who have to relive the pain and loss of those terrible days; our sympathies also extend to the children of John Muhammad who, with humility and self-consciousness, today lost a father and a 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 we offer our prayers for a better future."
"He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims," said Paul Ebert, the Virginia prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction. "I felt a sense of closure, and I hope that they did, too."
Bob Meyers, whose 53-year-old brother Dean was shot dead while pumping gas in Virginia, called Tuesday's spectacle "surreal.He said he may have attained some closure, "but I would say that pretty much was overcome just by the sadness that the whole situation generates in my heart. That he would get to the place where he did what he did, and that it had to come to this."
The execution came hours after Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine denied a last-minute clemency request Tuesday for Muhammad.
During three weeks in October 2002, Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, killed 10 people and wounded three, while taunting police with written messages and phoned-in threats and demands.During two trials and in years of appeals, Muhammad had professed his innocence. One of his trials included testimony from Malvo, whose youth excluded him from consideration for the death penalty. Muhammad's attorney had argued his client was not given sufficient time to file his final appeal, but said Tuesday -- after the high court and the governor declined his request for a stay -- that he would make no further efforts to delay the matter.In a written statement issued earlier Tuesday, lawyer Sheldon accused Virginia of racing to "execute a severely mentally ill man who also suffered from Gulf War Syndrome the day before Veterans Day."Muhammad met Tuesday with J. Wyndal Gordon, his former stand-by attorney in his Maryland trial, in which he represented himself.
"His attitude was strong, it was sturdy," Gordon told reporters. "Mr. Mohammad maintains his innocence in this case, and he always has. He is not remorseful, although he does extend his condolences to the families. What these families went through is tragic in every level. Given the injustices in this case, what Mr. Mohammad went through is equally as tragic."
The lawyer said Muhammad's last meal was "chicken and red sauce, and he had some cakes."Muhammad leaves four children and two ex-wives, Muhammad's first wife, Carol Williams, showed a letter in which he asked her to visit him on his execution day. "Carol, I miss my family for the past eight years," he wrote, referring to the time he has been incarcerated. "I don't want to be missed the day that these devils murder my innocent black ass."Asked about his father, Lindbergh Williams said his feelings about the death penalty had not softened with the approach of the execution. "If you commit a crime, you can pay the time," he said.Asked whether he believes his father regrets what he did, the younger William said, "Yes, I really do."

Although, this man shaked a nation i do not believe in the capital punishment. If killing is against the law why can the government do it? It is just like telling kid hitting is bad and then you spank him. Also i think to publisize a execution is wrong. Especially the brother of a victim said it was surreal to see. Well of course it is seeing anyone die in whatever situation especially murder, which lethal injection is, is surreal. It does incredable things to the mind. This is a form of social control becuase once this man became part of the criminal justice system is under control. Especially to say today is the day for you to die.What John Allen did is wrong and he should be punished for it.