DC sniper Muhammad set to die by lethal injection

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. — The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, DC-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday.

John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law the method defaults to lethal injection, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings.

The three-week killing spree in October 2002 left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iusIZC8PvRjuCm5Im_c_yzitM93AD9BJIG986

[Taverner]

1. Like I always say - I may be Anti-DP, but I will shed no tears for this murderous fuck

I am not anti-DP because I feel sorry for the condemned, but because I do not trust the state with that kind of power.

Texas gets it wrong over and over again.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Same here. He started out shooting several folks near where I live. nt

[YOY]

9. +1

My Home Depot is known as 'Sniper Depot' in my hood thanks to him.

I hate that fucking parking lot. It just creeps me out.

[Rebubula]

12. Same Neighborhood

Those were scary times indeed.

Sort of funny\ironic story. When Conrad Johnson was shot (last victim - Metro bus driver and the one that I felt the worst about), I was on my way into work in Rockville. I drove near the shooting site on my way (near Heaven's Gate Cemetery) and was stopped at a 4 way intersection as police searched vehicles. At the time, everyone assumed that it was a couple of white guys doing the shooting - so they searched my car carefully. When I got to work I was regaling my coworkers with my tale of police stop and search and one of my black coworkers just started laughing and said 'they just let my black ass through - I love turnaround!'

YOY - is your handle related to music at all??

[YOY]

13. I wasn't in town when it happened.

But the parking lot of my Arlington Home Depot is a creepy place. It's one of those two storey external parking lots. The lower storey is overcast and dirty. They killed an FBI person in there. There is a lot of garbage in the corners and the place is downright dreary even when it's full of bustling cars. I take my daughter with me sometimes when I have to buy something...I keep getting the picture of that poor 13-year-old kid who they killed in my mind.

Just creeps me right the fuck out.

YOY is just "Why Oh Why"...I suppose I could have got it from En Vogue's "Free Your Mind".

[Rebubula]

14. Scary times indeed

I cannot drive by the gas stations in Aspen Hill without getting chills.


The reason that I asked about your name is that my handle is based on a song of the same name by a band call moe. They also have an epic song called YOY. They are a jam band and can stretch out YOY for 30 minutes.

Peace

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Actually that boy didn't die.

He was seriously wounded, but Iran Brown is still alive.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3225817.stm

[YOY]

22. Well that's a positive.

Glad to be incorrect. I'm sure so he's glad I'm wrong too!

[onenote]

41. the one by seven corners? that one is a mile from me

i think about the sniper every time I shop there.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

43. Yeah. I worked a couple of miles away down...

Arlington Boulevard and still feel the same way when I'm back in the area and pass by it. I wasn't "afraid" after 9/11 or even during the anthrax attacks, but those random shootings scared the crap out of me. Those poor people.

[onenote]

45. absolutely. even taking the trash cans to the curb was an unnerving experience in those days

when the news of the home depot shooting came on the tv, the first thing I did was call my brother to see if he was home -- I didn't know the woman who was killed, but she lived very close to a good friend of ours. It could just as easily been one of my immediate neighbors.

[closeupready]

15. yeah. Being anti-DP is not about excusing criminals of their crimes.

It is about yes, exactly what you said, not trusting the state - any state - with the power to murder.

[Taverner]

17. EXACTLY

And there is also the fear that the executed might not be guilty...especially in TX where they take you out back and inject you right after the trial...

[24601]

62. Having lived in Texas, I can attest that you have been inaccurately

informed. Even in Texas, there are state, followed by federal appeals.

In Texas, however, there is one quirk in that a Governor cannot pardon or commute without such a recommendation from the parole board. All a Texas governor can do unilaterally is delay.

[lobodons]

21. The power to murder

Who should have the power to murder? Governments who sink to the level of murderers are themselves murderers.

Stick him in jail and let the hoodlums there kill him. He went after women and children so his life in gen pop would not be a bowl of cherries.

[Seeking Serenity]

34. Where to begin with THAT?

First, if the State executes someone according to the law, it is not murder. "Murder" is a specific kind of unlawful killing. Thus, it follows that if the State puts someone to death pursuant to law, it cannot be an unlawful killing, and thus not murder.

Second, you propose putting him jail with the expectation that his fellow inmates will do the job you don't want the State to do. If the State did put him in such a situation with the intent that or with manifest indifference to another inmate killing him, that would put the State much closer, in a moral sense, to being a "murderer" than simply executing him would.

[iandhr]

19. agreed

[JonQ]

2. Enjoy hell

you murdering bastard.

[vadawg]

48. +1

[Tim01]

65. +2

Burn.

[WriteDown]

3. I always wanted to make a movie featuring Denzel Washington as....

Muhammad and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Meyers. I would call it, "Remember the Snipers."

[Captain Hilts]

5. Obviously, you don't live in the DC area. nt

[WriteDown]

6. I'm sure the production unit could be flown there.

:)

[Captain Hilts]

7. Jokes are inappropriate here. nt

[WriteDown]

23. Depends on at who's expense...

In this case, its toward the snipers.

[LanternWaste]

33. And by default, his victims. n/t

"In this case, its toward the snipers..."

And by default, his victims.

[WriteDown]

63. They shouldn't punish them then....

They will only be punishing the victims. They need to set them free, that way their victims can be free. Oh wait....that logic is insane.

[Dreamer Tatum]

8. They should lethally inject him with lead, using the gun he used, while he goes about his business.

See how funny he thinks that is.

[qanda]

10. They often say that there have been no terroist attacks in America since 9/11

Well, if that wasn't terrorism then I don't know what is. The entire DC metropolitan area lived in complete and utter fear while this monster had no regard for the lives he was destroying. In some ways, the death penalty seems too good for him.

[T Wolf]

11. He was not a sniper. He did not stalk and hunt down specific targets. He BUSHWHACKED whomever came

along into his shooting zone.

A librul media would have used that term - the correct one.

[Berry Cool]

18. That was a horrible. horrible crime.

I can only imagine what it must have been like to fear leaving your house if you lived in the area.

This is one, well, being who will not be missed.

[northzax]

59. Yes, a terrible fear

Of course, that's the same fear that all too many Americans living in gun violence-ravaged neighborhoods feel every day. All the victims of muhhamad and Malvo (who seriously sounds like the name of a JK Rowling villain, by the way) did was be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But frankly, a lot of Americans die every year for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bullet comes by. They just happen to be in poor black neighborhoods so they don't make the news. I was teaching in what could only be described as an 'urban' elementary school in DC during these attacks. It ddn't change our routine at all, just another couple days that a code red kept us inside at recess. But for the most part, these were indoor kids anyway. Ask them why they don't play outside, and they'll tell you it's so they don't get shot. The two weeks of terror in Fredricksburg and Spotsylvania is their daily lot in life, because they were born poor, urban and black. So the next time a city like DC wants to regulate handguns out of existence, think of that fortnight of terror in the suburbs and imagine a lifetime of it. That is what guns and poverty do to cities. Yes, you can rob someone with a knife, but it's awfully hard to kill a random person ten feet away with one because your aim stinks.

[Happyhippychick]

20. I lived through it. Between that, 9/11 and anthrax it was a very stressful time. I was in Cabin

John mall with my daughter in a stroller when woman cam running towards me screaming that they were shooting people at malls (the poor guy who was mowing the lawn at Fitzgerald Motors was just killed at White Flint) and I grabbed my kid and ran out. Two days later they wrote a note saying that they were targeting children and I became completely unglued, the stress was enormous.

I am not a DP believer but I, too, will not shed a single tear for this horrible man.

[Captain Hilts]

24. He started the spree near me. Yes. Sept 11th, anthrax, then this. nt

[Neurotica]

42. Agreed - I was so ready to move out of the DC area

I remember being afraid all the time that whole year.

Once the sniper attacks started, our son's baseball season was cancelled. Classes didn't go out for recess anymore. And I remember one beautiful fall day -- I took my kids to a heavily used park and no one was there. No one went anywhere anymore.

[NYC Liberal]

25. It should be commuted. Let him rot in prison. nt

[Octafish]

26. Has he been de-programmed?

Remember, he only got caught sleeping at the rest area after the Sherrif got the media to spread the phrase: "like a duck in a noose."

Once he's executed, we'll never know what he knew. And that certainly included some crazy stuff. Perhaps also, it included some crazy MK/ULTRA type history.

It's too bad we'll only have the Department of Justice's word on it. How many are still Bush appointees?

[Codeine]

29. Christ.

Conspiracists and their fantasies.

[fujiyama]

31. Sometimes it's tough to figure out

if such people are trying to be sarcastic....or are truly and completely deluded.

[Octafish]

36. Not my fantasy. It's what happened.

Here you go, Codeine:

'Like A Duck In A Noose'

What's The Significance Of Cryptic Message?

By Bootie Cosgrove-Mather

(CBS) What does the phrase "caught like a duck in a noose" mean to the sniper?

Authorities are not revealing the context in which the sniper - if he is indeed the author of notes left for police - asked them to publicly say: "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose."

Police Chief Charles Moose read that sentence aloud late Wednesday night, as part of his latest message to the sniper, adding: "We understand that hearing us say this is important to you."

Until more information is made public, we can't know what the meaning is of the reference to the duck in the noose.

The statement is reminiscent of the children's story "Peter and the Wolf" - a story of pursuit and capture - in which a duck ultimately winds up in the stomach of the wolf, still quacking.

Another folk tale involving prolonged pursuit and eventual capture directly mentions the predicament of a duck in a noose.

On the Tsalagi-L.net Cherokee culture and history web site, a version of "The Rabbit, the Otter, and Duck Hunting" recounts the story of a rabbit who boasts about his ability to catch a duck. The rabbit catches the duck, fastening a noose around the bird's neck. But that deed proves to be the undoing of the rabbit, not the duck, when the duck manages to fly high into the air, with the rabbit still hanging on to the noose, until he loses his grip and falls into a deep hollow tree stump, with no hole in it from which to escape. There he stays, slowly starving to death, until finally he is rescued by calling out to a group of children nearby, a much sorrier rabbit than the spunky braggart at the beginning of the story.

SOURCE: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/24/national/main526811.shtml

PS: Thanks for the condescension!

[The abyss]

40. Thank you for bringing this to the table!

I remember well this being carried by the msm, and multiple discussions on other boards as to just what had been suggested by that announcement.

Again thanks Octafish for this “return”. Much went on during that hunt that was either carried out behind the scene or was purposefully implied.

[REP]

32. For fuck's sake

Exactly two people think this waste of skin matters: you and him.

[Octafish]

37. That's not what I said. I wrote that if he's dead, we won't know what made him crazy.

It's particularly important to know if he was programmed; and, if so, who did it and how. Don't you think?

Learn more here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/24/national/main526811.shtml

[christx30]

44. Well, if you think about it...

It's been 8 years since this happened. The guy has been in a cage since then. If we haven't learned anything in the last 8 years, what makes you think we will at some point in the future? I mean... He's been through a trial. Probably been questioned at length by state and federal officials. Is he planning on saying something on March 4th, 2020? He's had 8 years to say "I was not in control of my actions because I was brainwashed by the CIA" or something like that. And if that were the case, then someone in the agency knows about it or it's on some piece of paper in a file folder somewhere. So if we are going to learn about it, he's not going to be the one that tells us about it. Therefore, if finding out why he did it, we don't need him. If he wants to tell the world, he will. If not, he won't.

[sendero]

46. And we won't find out if he's alive either..

.... fry the mother fucker.

[proteus_lives]

27. Good.

He deserves to die for his crimes.

[mrbarber]

28. I hope he's sweating bullets in his jail cell

Knowing he's about to die.

I hope every second is a fearful lifetime.

Fuck him. May he rot. I'll happily piss on his grave.

[Jeep789]

30. I just can't celebrate anyone's death despite the

atrocities they've committed. I understand people's want for revenge but cannot condone it.

[Mike Daniels]

35. I'll go with what one of the first posters said...

I won't celebrate his death but as I lived in DC during the period and recall the panic the shootings caused I'm not going to mourn it either.

[Vidar]

38. Good riddance!

[MadMaddie]

39. With cowards like DC sniper Muhammad

they always plead not guilty, if they have the guts to commit their heinous crimes why don't they own it? Plead Guilty and don't spend the taxpayers money. Honestly I think death is too easy, I think that they should spend their lives in solitary confinement for the rest of their lives.

[toocoolforschool]

47. i wont lose any sleep about this dumb ass

[Zavulon]

49. Good. Lee Boyd Malvo should die with him.

If that little fuck shouldn't have been tried and executed as an adult, who should have?

[robcon]

50. agreed.

n/t

[Zavulon]

67. Thanks (NT)

[Lilith Velkor]

56. No. If you want to live in a country that executes children that bad, find one and move there.

Our human rights violations are bad enough without that barbaric shit.

[Zavulon]

66. Give me a break.

This wasn't a naive eight year-old kid, he was approaching adulthood and deserves to die. If he can't be executed, I hope someone shanks his punk ass in prison.

Oh, and I'm going to stay here, much to your dismay - and people who think like I do about that little shitbag Malvo aren't alone.

[slackmaster]

51. Tragic waste of human potential, human life, and justice system resources

The choices we make in life often have consequences.

[mule_train]

52. he must be innocent, aren't all serial killers white males?

that's what i always read, so it must be true

[Nye Bevan]

53. Death penalty opponents- don't use this scumbag as a poster boy

The problem with murderers like Muhammad is that they make me start to rethink my opposition to the death penalty.

I prefer to focus on that true miscarriage of justice in Texas. That could be the case to sow the seeds to end the DP once and for all.

[skipos]

55. Muhammad doesn't make me rethink my opposition to the DP at all

1. The DP isn't a deterrent to crime.
2. The DP isn't cheaper than life in prison
3. The DP is the only form of punishment you can't undo or take back
4. We have imprisoned innocent people, we have given life sentences to innocent people, so we have obviously executed innocent people.
5. I have no desire to be in the ranks of the other top DP using countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Pakistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan.

[Nye Bevan]

57. Yes, I am familiar with these arguments and I agree with them

But I would be lying if a small part of me did not feel a sense of satisfaction when someone like Muhammad is executed. And also in the wider court of public opinion focusing on cases like Muhammad could well be counterproductive to the anti-DP case.

[superconnected]

54. Kind of hard to be sympathetic.

I wonder if this guy grew a conscience when he found out he himself was going to die now. Betcha he's got a lot of reason why him being executed is wrong.

"Muhammad's lawyers have asked the Virginia governor for clemency and plan to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court early next month."

[Theobald]

58. I'm against the death penalty

On the grounds that the government can't be trusted to get it right. There are too many instances of prosecutors asking for the death penalty based upon the crime and not the evidence. However in this case I think he is clearly guilty and deserves to die, so I won't feel any remorse over his death, but if I had my way the death penalty would be abolished.

[kestrel91316]

60. I won't shed a tear. Evil mofo.

[SKKY]

61. This guy shot a kid in the stomach getting out of his mother's car in front of his school...

...so I have a hard time arguing against the DP in this case.

[mule_train]

64. first, they came for the serial killers..but i said nothing, because i was not a serial killer

next, they came for the child molestors, but i said nothing becasue i was not a child molestor

and then they came for people who hum in elevators, but i said nothing, becasue i do not hum in elevators

finally they came to my door, and i said 'thanks for taking away the people who hum in elevators, they really bug me'