Virginia executes sniper who terrorized D.C. area in '02

WASHINGTON — John A. Muhammad, whose murderous shooting spree in the fall of 2002 left at least 10 dead, was executed at a Virginia state prison on Tuesday night.

The execution closed a case that fixated the region ever since local residents were gunned down while doing the most mundane tasks, like shopping or pumping gas.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case of Muhammad, 48, who was sentenced to die for the killing of Dean H. Meyers, an engineer who was shot in the head at a gasoline station in Manassas, Va.

Meyers was one of 10 people killed in Maryland, Virginia and Washington over three weeks in October 2002. Muhammad's accomplice, Lee B. Malvo, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The two are also suspected of fatal shootings in Alabama, Arizona and Louisiana.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he would not stay the scheduled execution. "I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine said in a written statement. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene."

The random nature of Muhammad's shootings left people fearful and led many to remain indoors as much as possible to avoid becoming a target.

When the police announced that witnesses had reported having spotted white box trucks near the scenes of the shootings, the public became obsessed with the ubiquitous work vehicles and a sense of panic often beset anyone sitting at an intersection near such trucks. After a teenager was shot outside his Maryland school, local officials decided to keep schoolchildren inside at recess and they began drilling on duck-and-cover techniques.

While the Supreme Court did not comment in refusing to hear Muhammad's appeal, three justices objected to the relative haste accompanying the execution.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that he did not disagree with the majority's decision to decline the case, but he complained that "under our normal practice," Muhammad's petition for the court to take his case would have been discussed at the justices' conference scheduled for Nov. 24.

But because Virginia scheduled the execution for Tuesday, the judicial process was rushed, Stevens said in a statement joined by justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.