John Allen Muhammad, Beltway Sniper Executed

John Allen Muhammad has been executed in Virginia for his part in a three-week killing spree in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. in 2002.

A final appeal for a reprieve was denied hours before the execution, when Gov. Tim Kaine rejected Muhammad’s request for clemency. Kaine’s decision came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to halt the execution.

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Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad Scheduled for Execution

Convicted Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection November 10, a Virginia corrections official said Tuesday. Muhammad was offered a choice in method of execution, and he declined. Under the code, if the inmate declines to choose, it defaults to lethal injection. His attorneys are asking Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to spare his life.

Attorneys for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad said their client is mentally ill and they have asked Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to spare his life.

Thirteen people were shot, 10 fatally, when Muhammad and accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, went on a random shooting rampage around the Washington region in 2002.

Muhammad’s lawyers said in a statement they asked Kaine on Thursday to commute Muhammad’s sentence to life in prison. They said Muhammad’s illness is “illustrated by brain damage, brain dysfunction, neurological deficits as well as his psychotic and delusional behavior.”

The defense team said Muhammad’s mental illness was exacerbated by his military service in the first Iraq war. They presented Kaine with audio interviews of attorneys, mental health experts and a witness.

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Three Bali Bombers Have Been Executed

UPDATE: Three Bali bombers have been executed by firing squad on their prison island in Indonesia, according to television station TV One.

Islamic militants Mukhlas, his younger brother Amrozi, and Imam Samudra were put to death for their lead roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

The attacks killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Hundreds more were injured when bombs tore through the crowded Sari Club and nearby Paddy’s Bar on October 12, 2002.

The bombers were put to death on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java. The island is home to the prison where they spent their last years.

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Al Jazeera has learnt that the three men sentenced to die for their role in the Bali bombings will be executed in the coming hours.

The twin bomb attacks on the island in October 2002 killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Barring a last minute change by the authorities, the executions will be carried out early on Friday morning at a prison island off the coast of Java.

The executions are a highly sensitive issue in Indonesia, with supporters of the men vowing to carry out revenge attacks if they are put to death.

Indonesian police have stepped up security across the country amid fears that the execution could spark fresh bombings.

On the island of Bali, police bomb squads have conducted thorough searches around the site of the bomb memorial and elsewhere in Kuta, one of the island’s main tourist areas and scene of the attack.

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Bali Bombers Face Execution In 2 Weeks – Talk To CNN

The execution of three Muslim militants convicted for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings will be conducted “early in November,” a spokesman for the Indonesian attorney general’s office said on Friday.

The three – Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas and the “smiling assassin” Amrozi – have been on death row since 2003, when a Bali court sentenced them to death for their roles in the Oct 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign visitors.

None of the three has shown any remorse for the attacks.

The plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron will be conducted in early November 2008,” Jasman Panjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general’s office told a press conference.

Panjaitan did not specify an exact date or time for the execution, but said the execution can be carried out as the three men are running out of legal options. He also said that the three condemned militants have refused to file an appeal for clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“All legal avenues for death-row convicts Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra have ended and all legal requirements have been fulfilled,” Pandjaitan said.

Under Indonesian law a convict can ask for clemency from the president after legal appeals have been rejected by courts at all levels.

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected arguments by the three men’s attorneys that executions by firing squad were cruel and inhumane. The court argued that the alternatives also were painful.
Imam Samudra, Amrozi, known also as the “smiling assassin” and Mukhlas are being held in a maximum-security jail on Nusakambangan island, off the southern coast of central Java.

The three were members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist network responsible for several bombings across Indonesia.

These include simultaneous church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000, bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, the bombing of a JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2004 and an attack on the Australian Embassy in 2005.

Executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad at undisclosed locations in the dead of night. Prisoners are normally notified at least 72 hours before they are shot.

CNN Interview with Bali Bombers