Tonight at 9 p.m the state of Virgina will be executing John Allen Muhammad, one of the so-called beltway snipers.
Back in 2002, Muhammad and his young ward, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized people in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virgina. People were afraid to cut their grass, pump gas, or go shopping. Before they were done, they had killed 10 people and wounded 3 others.
The three weeks they were driving around and shooting people from the trunk of their car was a colossal bucket of suck for everyone. They were caught sleeping in their car at a rest stop here in Maryland on Interstate 70, about halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown.
The reason Muhammad is now in Virgina and not Maryland is because the Bush administration had him transfered to Virginia so that he could be tried there first. The reason? Because the prosecutor in Virginia was a Republican who had aspirations for higher office.
The prosecutor in Maryland was a Democrat.
I’m generally against the death penalty, not because I care about people like John Allen Muhammad. I don’t. I just don’t see how it solves anything. When Muhammad shuts his eyes for the last time tonight, the people he killed will still be dead. I also have a problem with how the death penalty is given to some, but not others.
It seems far too arbitrary.
With that said, I’m glad Muhammad is getting his ticket punched tonight. If we are going to have the death penalty in this country, why not him? I can think of no better person than John Allen Muhammad to get strapped down on a gurney and a toxic cocktail pumped through his veins.
Lee B.
/ November 10, 2009I have mixed feelings about the death penalty. There are a lot of statistics showing it does not deter crime. At the same time it costs a shitload of money to keep someone incarcerated for life. Not sure why people like you and I should have to pay these sorts of bills.
And I am not a religious man, but I have come to believe that some people are fundamentally evil- they will not be rehabilitated in a million years, and their presence on the planet benefits no one. (I know how shitty that sounds). Muhammad to me is one of those people. I just hope that it takes a few tries to get right during the execution, and he dies an excruciatingly painfully death.
Ryan
/ November 10, 2009Now his dead carcass can be left to rot. No getting to meet “Muhammad,” just his body, in the ground, rotting until there’s nothing left. He’ll be remembered as nothing more than a cowardice religious extremist who shot innocent people while hiding in the trunk of his car.