Execution Set for DC Sniper

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 16, 2009 10:50 AM CDT
Execution Set for DC Sniper
Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, center, addresses the court prior to being sentenced to death at the Prince William County Circuit Court in Manassas, Va, March 9, 2004.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that rocked the Southeast in 2002, will be executed on Nov. 10, the AP reports. The attorney general’s office had requested a Nov. 9 execution, but a Virginia judge chose to set it a day later so that it would fall on a Tuesday, allowing for last-minute appeals. Muhammad’s lawyer says he’ll appeal to the Supreme Court and ask Gov. Tim Kaine for clemency.

Muhammad killed 10 people during his 2002 massacre, with the help of Jamaican-born accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo. The pair began by killing six in Alabama and Louisiana, before moving to Maryland, DC, and Virginia. Malvo is currently serving a life sentence. Muhammad’s lawyers have argued, so far unsuccessfully, that prosecutors withheld evidence in the case, and that Muhammad shouldn’t have been allowed to represent himself. (More John Allen Muhammad stories.)

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