Unless Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine steps in, sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad will be executed today for the attacks that terrorized the people here in the Washington DC metro region for three weeks in 2002.
Muhammad is set to die by injection at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys have asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad’s final appeal Monday.
For the families of those killed, the day is a long time coming.
Cheryll Witz is one of several victims’ relatives who were going to watch the execution. Malvo confessed that, at Muhammad’s direction, he shot her father, Jerry Taylor, on a Tucson, Ariz., golf course in March 2002.
“He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I watch his last breath?”
The shootings terrorized the Washington region, with victims gunned down while doing everyday chores like shopping or pumping gas. People stayed indoors. Those who had to go outside weaved as they walked or bobbed their heads to make themselves less of a target.
The terror ended on Oct. 24, 2002, when police captured Muhammad and Malvo as they slept at a Maryland rest stop in a car they had outfitted so a shooter could hide in the trunk and fire through a hole in the body of the vehicle. Malvo is serving a life sentence in Virginia.
Death penalty opponents planned vigils across the state, and some were headed for Jarratt, about an hour south of Richmond, for the execution.
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