Wednesday, November 11, 2009

D.C. sniper's execution met with grief, bitterness

Justice fell short with the execution of Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, one of his victims' survivors said after witnessing his death by lethal injection.

Muhammad died silently Tuesday night in a Virginia prison death chamber filled with lawyers, lawmen and his victims' survivors.

After the execution, Steven Moore said he thought about Muhammad's accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who received a life sentence for their crimes.

"Well, myself, I wish Malvo was right there beside Muhammad," said Moore, whose sister, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, was gunned down in Virginia. "They both committed the same crimes. No, I don't feel any closure. I mean, it's ... it ... nothing changes."

Muhammad was the mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002, which left 10 dead and terrorized the nation's capital. He was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

"There were no complications," Traylor told reporters outside the Greenville Correctional Center. "Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement. He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever."

In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said.

But in a statement read by one of his attorneys, Mohammad still denied he had committed the crimes.

No comments:

Post a Comment