Victims' families ask to witness sniper execution

Space could be tight in Virginia's death house Nov. 10, with victims' family members seeking to attend the execution of Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad.

Muhammad, 48, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 24, were convicted of crimes committed during a three-week shooting rampage in October 2002 that killed 10 and wounded three in Virginia, Washington and Maryland. They also have been linked to woundings and slayings in other states.

Muhammad was sentenced to death in Virginia for the Oct. 9, 2002, slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, who was shot at a Manassas-area service station where he stopped for fuel while returning home from work that evening.

Patricia D. Allue, director of the Prince William County Victim/Witness Program, said her office has spoken with 11 families interested in attending the execution. They were referred to the state Department of Corrections so their names can be placed on the witness list.

"Certainly this execution is extraordinary — an execution that will undoubtedly touch the lives of many nationwide and one that will hopefully bring some sense of closure or justice to all those families who lost loved ones," Allue said.

Meyers' brother, Robert Meyers, said this week that he and his wife plan to witness the execution. He said it is his understanding there will be members of other victims' families there as well.

"My impression is that it's pretty restricted seating," said Meyers, who lives in Perkiomenville, Pa. "I think they're doing their best to provide an appropriate number for any family that wants to be represented, but it's probably in the range of one to two people per family, I believe."

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said: "I can't go into any details other than to say we have given consideration to all families affected by this case."

Traylor said he could not disclose the capacity of the room used by family witnesses, which is separated by a hallway from the public and news media witness room. Though the walls are glass, the other witnesses cannot see the family members.

Then-Gov. George Allen began allowing surviving family members of capital-murder victims to witness executions in 1994.

Allen's order states that when there are multiple victims, family witnesses are limited to those whose family member's death resulted in a capital-murder conviction. Many such trials were not sought for Muhammad after he was sentenced to death in Virginia.

In any case, said Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, "it's the governor's position that the families should be accommodated as much as is possible."

Malvo, a juvenile at the time of the shootings, is serving four consecutive life sentences at the maximum-security Red Onion State Prison in Wise County.

Most of the shootings were in the Washington area, although two were in the Fredericksburg area and another in Ashland. The two were arrested Oct. 24, 2002, while sleeping in Muhammad's modified Chevrolet Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County, Md.

Muhammad received two death sentences for the Meyers slaying. One was for murder in the course of an act of terrorism and the other for more than one killing in a three-year period. During his 2003 trial, evidence from 16 shootings, 10 of them fatal, was introduced.

Executions are conducted at 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.