Washington sniper sentenced to death

A judge sentenced John Muhammad to death yesterday for one of 10 sniper-style murders that terrorised the Washington area in 2002 and set October 14 as the execution date.

As expected, Judge LeRoy Millette confirmed last November's guilty verdict and death sentence by a jury and brushed aside Muhammad's appeal, which had argued his conviction was based on guesswork and emotion, rather than facts and law.

Before the sentence was passed, Muhammad again insisted he was innocent of the crimes that brought a reign of fear over the US capital area, when victims were shot at random as they walked to school, mowed grass or waited at bus stops.

"I had nothing to do with it," Muhammad told the court. The former Gulf War veteran was sentenced by a Virginia Beach jury for killing Dean Meyers, a 53-year-old Maryland man who was shot as he refueled his car in Manassas, Virginia. The trial had been moved to Virginia Beach, some 320 kilometres away, to avoid a prejudiced jury.

Muhammad accomplice Lee Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, faces his sentencing hearing today, when a judge will have to decide whether to confirm the jury's recommendation of life in prison. Malvo had faced a possible death sentence.

Muhammad is expected to lodge further appeals, which almost certainly will delay the execution.