Sniper executed by lethal injection

John Allen Muhammad was executed for masterminding, and carrying out with his teenage accomplice, the 2002 sniper shootings that killed 10 people and terrified the Washington, DC region a year after the September 11 and the deadly anthrax attacks.

The 48-year-old Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Centre in Jarratt, Virginia, said Virginia Department of Corrections spokes-man Larry Traylor.

"Death was pronounced at 9.11 p.m. (11 a.m. British time yesterday) There were no complications. Mr Muhammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement. He did not acknowledge us or make any statement whatsoever," Traylor told reporters.

"Things went very normally," Mr Traylor added.

Three journalists who witnessed the execution said a clean-shaven Mr Muhammad was stoic as he was strapped down and as the lethal injection was administered.

Mr Muhammad was convicted of killing Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station near Manassas, Virginia, during a three-week shooting spree in October 2002 that spanned Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Paul Ebert, the Virginia prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction against Mr Muhammad, was among the officials and family members of victims to witness the execution.

"He died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims. I felt a sense of closure and I hope that they did too," Mr Ebert told reporters.

As witnesses spoke to reporters gathered outside the correctional centre, an ambulance carrying Mr Muhammad's body to the medical examiner office in the state capital Richmond left through a gate behind them.

Mr Muhammad's teenage acc-omplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also was convicted in a separate trial of another killing in Virginia and is serving a life sentence in prison. Mr Malvo was 17 at the time of the shootings.

There has been uncertainty over exactly how many of the victims were shot by Mr Malvo and how many were killed by Mr Muhammad, though courts have found they acted together in all of the sniper slayings.